
The Holy Family, 



.. ; LITTLE PICTORIAL 

Liives of the Saints. 

WITH REFLECTIONS 

For Every Day in the Year. 

COMPILED FROM "BUTLER'S LIVES" AND OTHER APPROVED SOURCES. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED 

LIVES OF THE AMERICAN SAINTS PLACED ON THE CALENDAR 
FOR THE UNITED STATES BY SPECIAL PETITION OF 

ftbe GbtrD plenary Council of Baltimore* 

EDITED BY 

JOHN GILMARY V SHEA, LL.D. 




c FEB 12 1894 



New York, Cincinnati, Chicago : £ £ 

Benziger brothers, 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. 
1894. 

- 1 





JEmjmmattir* 

* Michael Augustine, 

Archbishop of New York, 



New York, January 21, 1887. 



Copyright, 1878, by Benziger Brothers. 
Copyright, 1887, by Benziger Brothers. 
Copyright, 1894, by Benziger Brothers. 



approbation of 1bl6 holiness fl>ope Xeo xin. 



American College, Via dell' Umilita, 
Rome, March 29, 18T9. 

His Holiness was more than usually pleased with your 
"PICTORIAL LIVES OF THE SAINTS." He greatly 
admired both binding and illustrations, and requested 
me to express to you his satisfaction. He sends you a 
special blessing, hoping that you will ever continue in your 
good undertaking, and that your work may be crowned 
with deserving success. Begging leave to join my own 
humble yet sincere congratulations, I have the honor to 
be, with great respect, 

Yours truly in Christ, 

L. E. HOSTLOT, Rector. 

3 



APPKOBATIONS, 



/IBoet IRew peter 1R* Ifcenrfcfc, 2>«D. t Archbishop of St. 

Louis : 

Please accept my thanks for a copy of the Pictorial Lives op 
the Saints published by you. Wishing it an extensive circulation, I 
remain, etc. 

/IBOSt 1Re\>. Z. %. (5tace t D.JD., Titular Archbishop of 
Siunia : 

... In this age of materialism the spirit of piety is in danger of 
dying out, and there is hardly a more effective means to preserve it 
alive and active than in keeping before us the example of the lives and 
the holy maxims of the Saints. Your book is well calculated in p.ll its 
features to attract readers, and in this lies its special merit and its claim 
to our heartiest commendation. 

/IROSt IReW 50bU IbentteSSg, 3). 3D., Archbishop of Du- 
buque : 

... I am much pleased with the work, and shall with pleasure im- 
prove every opportunity afforded me of recommending it to the priests 
and people of this diocese. Please send me two copies. 

j»O0t Kiev. 3\ ffi. SalpOlnte, Archbishop of Santa 

Fe: 

... I consider it as eminently calculated, by its compendious form, 
to be placed within the reach of many people, and to become a family 
book among the Catholics of our country. 

flhOBt IReW H>. 3"* IREatt, 3>,2>., Archbishop of Philadelphia : 

. . . It gives me much pleasure to add my name to those of the many 
prelates who have recommended this excellent publication. You will 

please to send twelve copies of the work to my address. 

4 



APPROBATIONS. 



5 



/llboat IRev, 1m, 1b- (Srosa, G,S5.1R* t W.1D. f Archbishop 

of Oregon City : 

. . . Your new edition of Lives of the Saints has the merit of 
brevity— children do not like long stories. As far as my rapid glance 
over them permitted me to judge, they are also well written. I admire 
especially the engravings. For their fine Catholic tone and artistic 
merit they forcibly remind one of the splendid woodcuts which orna- 
ment the rich Catholic literature of Germany. These engravings will 
render your book particularly attractive and also instructive to the 
young, though I trust that many older ones may not deem it amiss to 
read the " Gospel put in practice," as ascetics call the lives of the Saints. 
I pray that your new work may he read by mauy for the greater glory 
of God and the good of souls. 

IfoOBt IRCV, GbOttiaS 2>Ubamel, 2>.2>. t Archbishop of 
Ottawa : 

. . . This very interesting work cannot fail to do good to all who shall 
read it. I not only approve of it, but would beg every English-reading 
Catholic family of my diocese to buy a copy. 

/IftOSt IReW 50bU 3% Ifcatn, 2>.D., Coadjutor Archbishop of 
St. Louis : 

It is a work which will be welcomed by many devout persons who 

love to study the lives and heroic deeds of the Saints, but who have not 
time to peruse lengthy details. 

/IfoOSt IReW G. ©'JStien, D.D., Archbishop of Halifax: 

... I should be pleased to see it widely read in my diocese. I hope 

it may have an extensive sale everywhere. 

/IftOSt IReW #♦ £ ♦ 1Rat3er, 2>.2>. t Archbishop of Milwaukee : 

. . . You may add my name to those of the other Bishops. I would 
feel very happy if this excellent family book would be found in every 
household of my diocese. 

IRigbt IRev* Wim. ©eo* /IfccClosfceE, 2>*S>*, Bishop of 

Louisville : 

By making them familiar with the lives of the martyrs and confes- 
sors of the Church, this book seems admirably adapted to the religious 
instruction of children, and I would therefore earnestly recommend its 
introduction into every Catholic household. 



6 



APPROBATION. 



1Rt0bt IReW IKUm* © f 1bata t 3>,2>*, Bishop of Scranton : 

The Lives are short, practical, and give a sufficient outline of the 
pilgrimage and trials of the Saints on earth. I am sure it is a work that 
will do a great deal of good among the faithful at large, and the illus- 
trations will make it particularly acceptable to Catholic youth. , 

IRtgbt IReW {£♦ jfllbUllen, 2>,2>* t Bishop of Erie : 

Your Pictorial Lives of the Saints, to which you have asked my 
attention, has been already commended by me as desired. To that 
commendation I have nothing to add except that the great reduction 
you have made in the price of the book will now enable all to secure for 
private and family use one of the most edifying and instructive publica- 
tions that have lately issued from the press. 

IRigbt IReW ©♦ ID. 1R^an t 3>.2>. t Bishop of Buffalo : 

We are much pleased with the book, and authorize you to use our 
name in approbation of it, hoping that the bright and attractive volume 
will entice the public, the young particularly, to read about, and then 
love and imitate, the Saints. 

IRtgbt IRew Xouis Its. JFln^ t ©♦S.;©., 2>.2>. t Bishop of 

Leavenworth : 

... It supplies a want long felt by English-speaking Catholics, as it 
places within their reach a cheap and popular edition of the lives of the 
Saints. As nothing can conduce more to foster a spirit of piety among 
the faithful than this kind of reading, I trust it will receive a wide- 
spread circulation and become a household book in every Catholic 
family, and I will do what I can to encourage its circulation in my 
diocese. 

1Ri$bt IRew IRupert Sei&cnbu6br©*S.S8. t 2>.5>. t Titular 

Bishop of Halia : 

These Lives op the Saints are short and to the point, and by their 
cheapness as well as shortness will enable poor people to buy them and 
read them, which will hardly be the case with the larger editions already 
published. I have no hesitation to say that they will do a great deal of 
good, and have my hearty recommendation. 

1Rl0bt IReW X. %. /IfoOteau, 2>.2D. t Bishop of St. Hyacinthe: 

Je vous suis bien reconnaissant de renvoi que vous avez bien voulu 
me faire d'un exemplaire du beau livre que vous venez d'editer sous le 
titre de Pictorial Lives of the Saints. Bien volontiers je joins 



APPROBATIONS. 



inon approbation a celles deja nombreuses que vous avez recues des 
venerables Archeveques et fiveques des fitats-Unis, et je fais de Toeux 
bien siuceres pour que votre pieuse publicatiou ait la plus large circu- 
lation possible. Veuillez me croire, votre tout devoue et bien oblige 
serviteur. 

TRiQht 1Re\\ 21* 1Radne t 2D,2>., Bishop of Sherbrooke : 
It will, I hope, find its way into every Catholic household. 

1Rl0bt 1Ret>. 3% %♦ SpaRrttlfl, 2>,1>„ Bishop of Peoria : 

The plan is good, the compilation well made, and you have pub- 
lished the book in admirable style. It will, I hope, find its way into 
every Catholic family in the land. 

IRtgbt 1Re\>. 50btt Dertm, 2>*-2>„ Bishop of Marquette : 

The Pictorial Lives of the Saints is a valuable and desirable addi- 
tion to the many and various editions on the same subject, for the edifi- 
cation of the faithful; and as such we recommend it to the Catholics of 
our diocese. 

IRtgbt IReV. UeQibmS SVLWQeX, 2>.©. t Bishop of Nesqually : 

I received your Pictorial Lives op the Saints, etc. As far as I 
have examined it I think it is a book needed in every Catholic family. 
The short sketch of the life of the Saints with a reflection on it cannot 
when read but leave some pious thoughts and cause some wholesome 
resolutions in the mind and heart of the attentive reader and listener. 
Besides it will make our Catholics acquainted with the heroic deeds and 
virtues practised by them, and will animate them to imitation. 

1Rl0bt IReW /lib. 1Raugbten t 2>.2> n Bishop of Roseau : 

... It is certainly an excellent work, and one well suited for the 
minds of our youth, and should be found in every Catholic home in 
order to counteract the evil, demoralizing effects of the cheap, irre- 
ligious, and immoral productions which are constantly met with in these 
degenerate days. Here can be read of the heroic deeds of Saints of 
every age and clime, and after a short perusal each one may say as did 
St. Augustine: " Quod isti et istse cur non ego ? " Wishing the work 
that success which it deserves, I remain, gentlemen, etc. 

IRigbt IRew 1benr£ IRicbter, 2>,D* t Bishop of Grand 

Rapids : 

. . . Whereever it gains admittance into a family it will do much 
good. No book is so well adapted for spiritual reading of people in the 
world as the Lives of the Saints. 



8 



APPROBATIONS. 



IRtgbt IRew C* IRa&emacber, 2>.2> #t Bishop of Fort 

Wayne : 

... It is certainly a work which for its matter and form deserves, 
and will, I hope, attain, a large circulation among our Catholic people. 
With best wishes, etc. 

IRtabt IReV. IbeittE CoegtCWe, 3D, 3D., Bishop of Davenport : 

... I most cheerfully recommend it as a work which should be in 
every Catholic household. 

1Rt0bt IReW 2L 21. GurtfS, Bishop of Wilmington : 

... I have not had time, and do not know when I will have, to give 
the book a careful reading, but the name of the Editor is a sufficient 
guarantee that the book is all it ought to be. I cordially hope that its 
issue will be, as it deserves, to the advantage of yourself and the Editor, 
as well as to the benefit of the faithful in general. 

1Rl0bt 1ReY>, 2L <3l0deU£ t £>♦!>♦, Vicar-Apostolic of 
Idaho : 

. . . Having examined it, I must needs recommend it. I have no 
doubt that it will continue to prove a very edifying book. I will do all I 
can to circulate it in the Vicariate. 

IRigbt IRew 2L Sutler, 2>.©, t Vicar-Apostolic of 

British Guiana and Barbados : 

... I fully endorse the many favorable recommendations that you 
have already received about the book. It will promote piety wherever 
it will be read. It is admirably suited for school prizes, being rich in 
binding and illustrations. 



This work also received the approbation of the following Prelates, 
now deceased: Most Rev. Thomas Porter, S.J., D.D., Archbishop of 
Bombay; Right Rev. J. J. Carberry, D.D., Bishop of Hamilton; Right 
Rev. Jos. Dwenger, D.D., Bishop of Fort Wayne; Right Rev. Kilian C. 
Flasch, D.D., Bishop of La Crosse; Right Rev. R. Gilmour, D.D., Bishop 
of Cleveland; Right Rev. J. La Roqu?, D.D., Bishop of Germanicopolis; 
Right Rev. P. Mclntyre, D.D., Bishop of Charlottetown ; Right Rev. E. 
O'Connell, D.D., Bishop of Grass Valley; and Right Rev. E. P. Wadhams, 
D. D. s Bishop of Ogdensburg. 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



oyable feasts are so called because they have no 
fixed place in the calendar ; their celebration hap- 
pening sooner or later, year by year, according as the feast 
of Easter itself occurs at a different period. The latter feast 
is always celebrated on the Sunday which accompanies or 
follows the first full moon after the spring equinox. As 
the movable feasts afford useful lessons, we ought to take 
them fully to heart, 

ADVENT. 

he time of Advent cannot exactly be considered festal, 
nor can it be classed among the movable feasts; and 
yet the first day of Advent is, in another sense, movable, 
inasmuch as it happens always on the fourth Sunday before 
Christmas — which festival itself falls on different days of 
the week. Advent means coming, and the four weeks 
whereof it consists represent the four thousand years which 
preceded the coming of the Son of God into this world. 
Formerly, Advent-time was observed by fasting, absti- 
nence, and mortification, but not in a manner so rigor- 
ous as that of Lent. Notwithstanding the alleviations 
which the Church has thought well to introduce in the 
course of time, Advent has still remained a period of recol- 
lection and prayer. The true Christian ought to take ad- 

9 




10 



THE MOT ABLE FEASTS. 



vantage thereof, and by pious yearnings entreat for the 
coming of the Son of God into his heart by grace, and into 
the world at large by the spreading of the Gospel. 

Reflection. — " All the days in which I am now in war- 
fare I await until my change come. Thou shalt call me, 
and I will answer Thee." 

QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY THE FORTY HOURS' 

DEVOTION. 



Quinquagesima Sunday is the third day preceding 
Ash Wednesday. That holy season is approach- 
ing when the Church denies herself her songs of joy in 




order the more forcibly to remind us, her children, that 
we are living in a Babylon of spiritual danger, and to 
excite us to regain that genuine Christian spirit which 
everything in the world around us is striving to undermine. 
If we are obliged to take part in the amusements of the few 
days before Lent, let it be with a heart deeply imbued with 
the maxims of the Gospel. But, as a substitute for frivo- 
lous amusements and dangerous pleasures, the Church 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



11 



offers a feast surpassing all earthly enjoyments, and a 
means whereby we can make some amends to God for the 
insults offered to His divine majesty. The Lamb that 
taketh away the sins of the world is exposed upon our altars. 
On this His throne of mercy He receives the homage of 
those who come to adore Him and acknowledge Him for 
their King ; He accepts the repentance of those who come 
to tell Him how grieved they are at having followed any 
other master ; and He offers Himself again to His Eternal 
Father as a propitiation for those sinners who yet treat His 
favors with indifference. It was the pious Cardinal Gabriel 
Paleotti, Archbishop of Bologna, who, in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, first originated the admirable devotion of the Forty 
Honrs. His object in this solemn exposition of the Most 
Blessed Sacrament was to offer to the divine majesty some 
compensation for the sins of man, and, at the very time 
when the world was busiest in deserving His anger, to ap- 
pease it by the sight of His own Son, the Mediator between 
heaven and earth. Pope Benedict XIV. granted many in- 
dulgences to all the faithful of the Papal States who, dur- 
ing these days, should visit Our Lord in this mystery of His 
love, and should pray for the pardon of sinners. This favor, 
at first so restricted, afterwards was extended by Pope Clem- 
ent XIII. to the universal Church. Thus the Forty Hours 1 
Devotion has spread throughout the whole world and be- 
come one of the most solemn expressions of Catholic piety. 

Reflection. — Let us then go apart, for at least one short 
hour, from the dissipation of earthly enjoyments, and, 
kneeling in the presence of our Jesus, merit the grace to 
keep our hearts innocent and detached. 

ASH WEDNESDAY. 

AN, drawn from the dust, must return to it, and 
all that he does meanwhile, with the exception of 
what good he may achieve, is but dust and vanity; the 




12 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



good alone survives. Such are the truths which the 
Church wishes to engrave in the memory, but still more in 
the hearts, of her children, by the sprinkling of ashes on 
this first day of Lent. This custom dates from the first 
centuries of the Church, and was then observed, not toward 
all the faithful without distinction, but toward public sin- 
ners who had submitted themselves to canonical penance, 
to obtain thereby reconciliation with the Church and ad- 




mission to a share in the divine Eucharist. The bishop 
imposed on them the obligation of wearing the hair-shirt 
and penitent garb, placing ashes on their head, and then 
excluding them from the church until the day of Easter. 
Meanwhile, they had to remain humbly prostrate at the 
church-porch, imploring the prayers of those who, more 
happy than they, might assist at the divine mysteries within 
the sacred building. The custom of putting ashes on the 
head in token of penitence is even more ancient than Chris- 
tianity ; the Jews practised it, and the holy King David 
tells us that he had submitted to the observance. It may 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



13 



be said rather to date from the first ages of the world ; for 
the holy man Job, long before even the time of Moses, fol- 
lowed the custom. Nothing is, in fact, more calculated to 
lead the sinner to enter into himself than the remembrance 
of his last end. Nothing is better fitted to beat down pride 
and put a check on futile projects and guilty purposes than 
the terrible and sad memento, "Remember that thou art 
but dust !" Empires, riches, honors, and dignities, resplen- 
dent palaces, triumphal cars, fair adornments, beauty, 
strength, and power, all crumble away, and their very pos- 
sessor is but a ruin, and, ere a few days have sped, will 
have dwindled into dust. 

Reflection. — Bear ever in mind, then, men and sinners, 
that " you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." 



'e that delight in decking your head with costly and 



superb adornments, who love to cumber your hands 
with gold and precious jewels, who revel in luxury and 
in soft garments, approach and see to what a condition 
Jesus Christ, your Captain and Saviour, is reduced. His 
head is crowned with thorns and streaming with blood, and 
every base indignity heaped thereon by ruffian executioners; 
His feet and hands are pierced by nails, His side gaping 
with a wide-open wound. Such are the mournful accents 
uttered by the Church on the first Friday of Lent, two days 
after she has strewed ashes on the heads of the faithful. 
"For you it is," she exclaims, " that the Son of God, the 
Word made flesh, has undergone these heart-rending 
affronts, with intent to expiate your evil-doings, and to 
teach you that the idol of your body, which you deck out 
.with so much care and eager delight, deserves, on the con- 
trary, naught but affliction and suffering. How can you, 
while wreathing yourselves with flowers, venture to tread 



THE FIVE WOUNDS OF OUR LORD. 




14 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



in the footsteps of a Master Who bears a thorny crown ? 
And with what mind do you propose becoming the disciples 
of such a Master ? That forehead made lustrous with bor- 
rowed splendor, those limbs delicately clad and brilliantly 
adorned, will first become the food of the grave- worm, and 
afterward the prey of that fire that quencheth not, if you 
strive not to bend them down to that lowliness which is 
native to them, to the state of subjection for which they 
were created, and to the penitence they have merited by 
reason of sin." 

Reflection. — May the contemplation of the wounds of 
Our Saviour engrave deeply in our mind the maxim uttered 
by His own divine lips : "If any man will come after Me, 
let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. " 

THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS 
CHRIST. 

he Church, inspired by the Holy Ghost, has estab- 
lished a special feast in honor of the Most Precious 
Blood of Our Lord. This saving blood was first shed 
at the circumcision of the divine Infant ; it was next 
poured out in the bloody sweat of agony in the Garden of 
Olives ; again it flowed under the cruel blows of the savage 
soldiery ; then when the crown of thorns was pressed into 
His temples ; and finally when 1 ' one of the soldiers with a 
spear opened His side, and there came out blood and 
water." St. Augustine, explaining these words of St. John, 
points out that the Evangelist does not use the words struck 
or wounded, but says distinctly, " one of the so'.diers with 
a spear opened His side," that we may understand thereby 
that the gate of life was opened, and from that sacred side 
issued all those sacraments of the Church without which 
we can never hope to gain eternal life. This precious 
blood was symbolized by the victim of the Old Law ; but 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



15 



while these latter sacrifices served only to purify the outer 
man, the blood of Jesus Christ, by virtue of its infinite 
efficacy, washes us free from all sin, provided we avail 
ourselves of the means established by our divine Saviour 
in His Church for the application of its infinite merits. 

Reflection. — Let us haste, then, to profit by the graces 
offered us. Let us wash away the stains of sin in the 




Sacrament of Penance, and nourish ourselves with the 
most blessed body and blood of the holy Eucharist, Let 
us ever be attentive at Mass, where this adorable blood 
mystically pours forth again upon the altar to plead our 
cause before the throne of divine justice. 



THE SEVEN DOLORS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

/qfvE, when placed by the hand of God in a garden of 
delights, received but one precept to be obeyed so 
as to be forever happy— a precept easy of accomplish- 
ment, the non-observance whereof should needs be in- 



16 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



excusable, inasmuch as neither urgent want nor strong 
inclination led to its violation ; there was conjoined, more- 
over, the assurance of death following inevitably upon the 
transgression of the precept. But the serpent, kindling 
with jealousy and hate, came to tempt her. She gazed on 
the forbidden fruit, gathered thereof, and carried it to her 
husband, and together they ate, incurring the fatal loss, 
and involving mankind in their downfall. Mary, preceded 
by the God made man, went toiling with Him up the arid 
steep of Calvary, in order to accomplish the most heart- 
rending of all sacrifices. Eve had rebelled ; Mary surren- 
dered her will. Eve had yielded to the enticing voice of 
the tempter ; Mary, heard the voice of the same demon of 
jealousy and hate, uttering by the mouth of the impious 
Jews blasphemies and maledictions, but she was not fright- 
ened from her purpose. Eve, in her disobedience, stretched 
forth her hand toward the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil ; Mary, in her submission to the designs of God, 
stretches forth hers to the tree of the cross. Eve* had 
sacrificed to her caprice the spouse through whom she had 
received being ; Mary assists at the sacrifice of the Son to 
Whom she has given being. Eve was born of man without 
the agency of a mother ; Mary gave birth to the Man-God 
without the intervention of a spouse. Eve, after her dis- 
obedience, became the mother, in the order of nature, of a 
race accursed ; Mary, through her submission, has become, 
in the order of grace, the Mother of a race sanctified. 

These points of resemblance and contrast offer themselves 
spontaneously to the mind, provided we ponder somewhat 
over the remembrance celebrated by the Church on the 
Friday in Holy Week, under the title of "The Seven Dolors 
of the Blessed Virgin." A mother's heart can alone com- 
prehend the agony of torture endured by this Mother at the 
foot of the cross whereon her Son was immolated ; we do 
not attempt to describe, nor are any mere human lips, 
indeed, able to express it. 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



17 



Reflection. — Let us adore this divine and mysterious 
abyss of charity, in whose depth our salvation was worked 
out at the price of so much suffering ; and let us bear in 




mind what we have cost that Mother to whose guardian- 
ship we were made over even from the sublime height of 
the cross. 



THE MOST HOLY CROWN OF THORNS OF OUR 
LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

he Most Holy Crown of Thorns, consecrated by the 
head and the blood of our divine Saviour, has 
always been looked upon as one of the most precious 
of relics. 

Having been carried to Constantinople, it w T as there 
carefully kept, during the reign of the French emperors, 
up to the beginning of the thirteenth century. At that 
time the emperor, Baldwin II. , was sorely pressed by the 
Saracens and Greeks, and, considering Constantinople as 
no longer secure, he sent the precious relic to his cousin, 



18 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



St. Louis, who accepted it with delight. St. Louis, in re- 
quital, afterward voluntarily paid off a large sum which 
the emperor had borrowed from the Venetians. In 1239 
the sacred treasure was carried in a sealed case, with 
great devotion, by holy men, to France. St. Louis, accom- 
panied by many prelates and his entire court, met it five 




leagues beyond Sens. The pious king, with his brother, 
Eobert of Artois, both barefooted, carried it into that city to 
the Cathedral of St. Stephen, accompanied by a numerous 
procession. Two years after, it was taken to Paris, where 
it was received with great solemnity and placed in the 
Holy Chapel, which St. Louis built for its reception. Every 
year, on the 11th of August, the transfer of this relic from 
Venice to Paris is celebrated in the Holy Chapel. 



The movable feasts. 



PALM SUNDAY. 

— 9 essons without end, at once lofty and hallowing, 
< ' * might be deduced from the triumphant entry of 
Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, celebrated by the Church 
on this day ; we limit ourselves, however, to considering 
the event under one aspect merely, in order to draw 
therefrom a moral lesson for our spiritual instruction. 
Jesus Christ enters Jerusalem, and the people forthwith 
improvise a triumph all the more noble because it has cost 
neither blood nor tears, and so much the more touching 
because it is spontaneous. The whole town is in commo- 
tion, the roadway is strewn with branches and covered 
with the garments of the bystanders, every mouth resound- 
ing with acclamations and blessings and praise. Jesus 
Christ is proclaimed the Son of David, the King of the 
nation, and the Messias. Ere a few days are sped, the 
very people that had applauded now clamor for His death, 
curse and insult Him, and assist at His degrading death 
with fiendish cries of triumph. 

Even thus pass away the glories of the world, its joys, 
its possessions, even life itself. To-day at the height of 
greatness, to-morrow in the deepest abasement ; but yester- 
day the idol of a nation, to-day the object of its hate ; now 
surrounded with prosperity, and, yet a little while, borne 
down by misfortune ; one day full of life and vigor, and 
the next consigned to the tomb. 

foolish, then, are they who would account as of any 
value, or would cling to, things perishable ! What bitter 
awakenings have not such poor deluded beings to expect, 
and what chagrin and tearful disappointments do they not 
create for themselves ! The Christian who places the aim 
of his hopes and the centre of his affections at a higher 
range is both wiser and more happy. Prosperity does not 
blind nor inebriate him, since he knows it to be capricious 



20 THE MOVABLE ^i2AST&. 



and changeful ; adverse fortune does not overwhelm him, 
because he was prepared for it and awaited it with calm- 
ness. The unforeseen alone affords any ground for fear ; 




and to the faithful Christian there is nothing that is un- 
foreseen. 



Reflection.— The recommendation given by the great 
Apostle maybe aptly brought to mind: u And they that 
weep be as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice, 
as though they rejoiced not ; and they that use this world, 
as though they used it not ; for the fashion of this world 
passeth away." 

MAUNDY THURSDAY. 

ON Thursday, the eve of the Passion, Jesus Christ 
took bread, and, having blessed it, broke and dis- 
tributed it to His apostles, saying to them, ' 6 Take and 
eat : this is My body, which shall be delivered for you." 
Then taking the chalice, He blessed and gave it to them, 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



21 



saying, " Drink ye all of this ; for this is the chalice of 
My blood, which shall be shed for you." He thereafter 
added, " This do in remembrance of Me." These words, 
in all their precision, simplicity, and clearness, contain the 
institution of the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, an 
irrefragable proof of the Keal Presence of Jesus Christ in 
this sacrament, and the demonstration of His perpetuity 
in the Church. But, rather than indulge in reasoning, let 




us set forth briefly the principal effect. Jesus Christ, 
before instituting it, had said that this sacrament would 
communicate life eternal to those receiving it ; and this, 
in one aspect at least, and so far as it is given to man to 
understand the mysteries of God, is comprehensible. Sin 
had implanted in man the germ of death and vice. By 
reason of his disobedience man had become incapable of 
good, or even of a holy thought, as the great Apostle tells 
us. Now, in God is the source of being, life, good, virtue, 
and all excellence. God, by communicating Himself sub- 
stantially to man by means of this august sacrament, 



22 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



implants the germ of immortality and virtue. Man, if 
limited to his own powers, could not even think out a 
useful way of becoming virtuous, for whence should he 
take the principle of virtue and the means of putting it in 
practice ? He would consequently have to incur eternal 
loss, since salvation without virtue is a thing utterly im- 
possible. But once pervaded with the principle of grace 
by an intimate union with God, he has only to let it develop 
and to cultivate the good seed sown in him. Thus does 
the diamond, of itself colorless and dim, absorb the light 
when exposed thereto, becoming a sparkling centre of light 
and shining with a radiant lustre. The more vivid the 
light, the more brightly will the diamond shine, if it be 
pure. In like manner, the more man launches himself 
into the divine substance, the more will he therewith be 
inundated by Holy Communion ; the more potent, also, will 
his life become in virtues strong and manifold, and, con- 
sequently, in sure claims to salvation. 

Reflection. — With what respect, love, and ardor ought 
we not to receive this divine food, " which maketh to live 
forever " ! 

GOOD FRIDAY. 

esus Christ was nailed to the cross about midday, 
expired thereon in the afternoon, and was taken 
down in the evening toward sunset, or the sixth hour. 
According to the language of St. Paul, thus did He, by 
His blood, pacify heaven and earth. If this form of ex- 
pression convey not simply the reconciliation of heaven 
with the earth, it veils a mystery impenetrable to feeble 
reason. But this very reconciliation is in itself the greatest 
mystery ; for man always vainly tries to explain it by re- 
curring to comparisons and considerations of human con- 
ception merely, which are vastly insufficient from the fact 
of their being human. And what matters it, after all, 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



S3 



whether we understand or not so great a mystery ? Enough 
for us that it has produced its effect, and that we are able 
to adore it in gratitude and love. That philosophy should 
rail at what it does not fathom is sheer foolishness. In- 
credulity may scoff at what it does not recognize ; it con- 
cerns it, however, to know whether reason be on its side. 
Let heresy explain, after human fashion, things divine ; 
as for us Christians, let us fix our gaze on the Mediator 




between God and man, raised aloft between heaven and 
earth, with arms outstretching in order to enfold the 
universe, with head downbent to give to the world the 
kiss of peace and reconciliation, after having, at the cost 
of His blood, purchased peace ; and let us humble our whole 
being in heartfelt thanksgiving and love. Let us rever- 
ently imprint our lips on this cross, the instrument of our 
salvation ; let us bend down trembling before the just God, 
Who takes such noble revenge for our guilt. By our works 
let us make some return for the price we have cost ; by our 
penitence and tears let us apply to ourselves the merit of 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



His redemption, and henceforth live only for heaven, 
since we have been made heirs to heaven. 

Reflection. — The cross, " to the Jews indeed a stum- 
bling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness," is, withal, the 
instrument of Christ's power and of the wisdom of God. 

HOLY SATURDAY. 

hree hours after Jesus Christ had uttered His last 
sigh on the cross, two of His disciples, Mcodemus 
and Joseph of Arimathea, went to ask Pilate for the body, 
that they might give it burial. Having obtained it, they 
embalmed it according to the custom of the Jews, and 
deposited it not far from the place of Calvary, in a tomb 
hewn in the rock, wherein no one had yet been laid. Pilate 
caused the entrance to be sealed up, and placed a guard 
over it, lest the body should be taken away. The Saviour 
thus remained from nightfall on the Friday till the first 
rays of dawn on the Sunday. He had Himself said that He 
was to pass this time in the tomb, and had quoted as an 
example the abiding of the prophet Jonas for the same 
space of time in the whale's belly. It was then a real death 
that was associated with these signs and precautions, and 
the sacrifice had been consummated and w T as irrevocable. 
Well might we then marvel at such excess of love, covering 
ourselves with confusion at the thought of how feebly we 
love Him Who hath so greatly loved us, and of how little we 
do for Him Who hath accomplished so much for us. But 
we should enter upon another consideration. With Jesus 
Christ died also the ancient world with its hideous worship; 
the synagogue with its symbols and mysteries ; and the 
man of sin, the old Adam, with its concupiscences — yea, 
even death itself, which had been inflicted on man in pun- 
ishment for sin. With Jesus Christ died sin, and sin was 
placed in the tomb with Him ; for, according to the beauti- 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



25 



ful expression of the Apostle, the Saviour fastened the sins 
of men to the cross. 

Now the cross itself was buried on the spot where Christ 
had suffered, as was the custom among the Jews, and as 
was fully shown by the finding thereof in conjunction with 
those of the two thieves, three centuries later, by St. Helen ; 
whence it follows that among us Christians, the disciples, 
that is, of Christ, and regenerated by His death, there 




ought never to lurk any shadow of Jewish superstition or 
pagan morals, any remnant of the old Adam or man of sin. 
Concupiscences, disorderly passions, and love of the world 
should no longer exist but as the memory of a time that is 
no more. 



Reflection. — u For we are buried together with Him by 
baptism unto death ; that as Christ is risen from the dead 
by the glory of His Father, so we also may walk in newness 
of life. For if we have been planted together in the like- 
ness of His death, we shall be also of His resurrection, 



26 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



knowing this, that the old man is crucified with Him, that 
the body of sin may be destroyed, and that we may serve 
sin no longer." 

EASTER SUNDAY. 

he resurrection of the dead is one of the most consol- 
ing truths of Christianity. To die forever would be 
the most terrible of all destinies. The plant and the 
animal, unendowed with reason, die, never to live again ; 
but they have not, at least, any apprehension as to what death 
is. To die is to them one of the thousand accidents bound 
up with life ; to the plant it is as nothing, and for the ani- 
mal without reason a merely transitory pang, death itself 
being but the affair of a moment. For man, on the con- 
trary, death has terrors w r hich precede it, anguish accom- 
panying it, and apprehensions consequent upon it. The 
most strongly attempered spirit shudders on reflecting that 
it must incur death ; the most selfish man has attachments 
which he with difficulty severs ; the most determined unbe- 
liever experiences doubts as to the shadowy To morrow of 
death. Man would then be the most pitiable among all 
beings were Religion not at hand to say to him, ' ' The grave 
is a place of momentary rest ; you will come forth thence 
one day. The God that gave being to your limbs will re- 
store them ; the Resurrection of Jesus Christ gives thereof 
an assured pledge." 

This confidence in the future resurrection is a subject of 
the greatest joy to the children of God, the groundwork of 
their faith, the mainspring of their hope, and the most lasting 
comfort amid the evils of this life. For if Christ had not 
risen, says the apostle St. Paul, in vain would we believe 
in Him. He would be convicted of having been an impostor, 
and His apostles of being mad ; His death would not have 
availed us anything, and we should still be dwelling in 
the bonds of sin. Those dving in Jesus Christ would per- 




THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



ish, and, our hope in Him not extending beyond the present 
life, we should be the most unfortunate of men, inasmuch 
as, after having had, as our portion in this life, sufferings 
and afflictions, we should not be able to console ourselves 
with the expectation of future good. But Jesus Christ 
having come forth living from the tomb, His doctrine is 
confirmed by His Resurrection ; it establishes the certitude 




of His mission in His character as Son of God, the efficacy 
of the sacrifice He offered on the cross, the divinity of His 
priesthood, the rewards of the other life, and the glorified 
resurrection of the flesh. 



Reflection. — We shall one day rise again ; but let us 
range by the side of such a consoling expectation that terri- 
ble warning of the prophet Daniel, " Many of those that 
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some unto life 
everlasting, and others unto reproach eternal." 



28 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



THE ASCENSION. 

^^he mystery which the Church honors on this day is 
at the same time that of the triumph of Jesus Christ 
and the hallowed hope of His disciples. The Saviour, 
after having accomplished His mission on earth, ascends 
to heaven to put His manhood in possession of the glory 
due to it, and to prepare for us an abiding-place. He 
ascends thither as our King, Liberator, Chief, and Medi- 
ator : our King, because He has purchased us at the cost 
of His blood ; our Liberator, because He has conquered 
death and sin, and has ransomed us from the thraldom of 
Satan ; our Chief, because He wishes that we should follow 
in His footsteps, and that we should be where He is, even 
as He has Himself declared ; our Mediator, because we can 
have access to the Father only through Him. He ascends 
thither as our High Priest, in order to offer unceasingly to 
God the blood which He has shed for us in His character of 
man, and to obtain for us through the merits of His sacri- 
fice the remission of our sins. 

Let us, then, by means of faith, follow Him in His As- 
cension to heaven, and abide there henceforth in heart and 
spirit. Let us remember that heaven is wholly ours, as 
our inheritance ; and, amid the temptations and miseries of 
this life, let us think often of this home of peace, of glory, 
and of bliss eternal. 

"We must not flatter ourselves, however, that without 
earnest efforts on our part we shall have any share in the 
kingdom of Jesus Christ. There are many mansions in 
the house of our heavenly Father, but there are not many 
roads leading thither. Jesus Christ has traced out for us 
the way of humiliation and suffering, and it is the only one 
that conducts to eternal peace. If the hardships of the 
journey and the sight of our own weakness strike us with 
dread, we should gather energy by leaning on the promises 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



29 



of the God-man. He will be with us even unto the end, 
and if we love Him all will become easy. 





Reflection. — Let us cherish hope: " Christ being come, 
a High Priest of the good things to come, hath entered into 
the holy of holies, by His own blood having obtained 
eternal redemption." 



WHIT-SUNDAY. 

Bifty days after Easter the apostles and disciples of 
Jesus Christ were assembled in an upper chamber, 
engaged in prayer, according to the recommendation of 
the divine Master, and awaiting the accomplishment of 
the promise He had made to them, of sending them a 
Comforting Spirit, the Paraclete, Who should teach them 
all things. Lo ! a great noise, as of a rushing tempest, 
was suddenly heard, the house was rocked to and fro, and 
tongues of fire were seen resting on the head of each one. 
At once all were changed into new men, their minds being 



BO 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



endowed with full understanding of the Scriptures and of 
the wonders they had hitherto witnessed without compre- 
hending, and their souls were filled with strength from on 
high ; thenceforth they belonged no more to themselves, 
but to the work of the Gospel. From that time forth this 
divine Spirit has not ceased to pour Himself forth upon the 
Church to enlighten, confirm, protect, and guide ; He has 




not ceased communicating Himself to each of the faithful 
individually, either by means of the sacraments or by grace, 
whenever He has found hearts well disposed. 

The Fathers of the Church and all theologians are of one 
mind in recognizing, in the workings of the Holy Ghost in 
the hearts of the faithful, seven chief gifts : Wisdom, Un- 
derstanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and the 
Fear of the Lord, The gift of Wisdom helps us to judge 
healthily of all things concerning our last end ; the gift of 
Understanding, to apprehend the truths revealed, and to 
submit our hearts thereto ; the gift of Counsel, to choose 
in all things the part best fitted for the sanctification of our 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



Bi 



souls ; the gift of Fortitude, to resist temptations and over- 
come dangers ; the gift of Knowledge, to discern the best 
means of sanctifying ourselves ; the gift of Piety, or Godli- 
ness, causes us to love religion and the practices having 
reference to divine worship ; the gift of the Fear of the 
Lord turns us aside from sin and from whatever may dis- 
please God. 

Reflection. — " They that are according to the flesh mind 
the things that are of the flesh ; but they that are accord- 
ing to the Spirit mind the things that are of the Spirit. 
For the wisdom of the flesh is death ; but the wisdom 
of the Spirit is life and peace." 

TRINITY SUNDAY. 

he Holy Trinity is one only God in three Persons, the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, equal in all 
things and co-eternal. The Father gives being to the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and 
the Son : the most adorable, truly, of all mysteries, and 
likewise the most impenetrable ! St. Anselm has en- 
deavored to explain it from a single point of view only, and 
has accomplished this in a masterly yet necessarily insuffi- 
cient manner. The Father, he says, cannot exist a single 
instant without knowing Himself, because, in God, to 
know is to exist, even as to will is to act. This knowledge 
personified is "the Word," His Son. The Son is, then, 
co-eternal with the Father. The Father and the Son can- 
not exist a single instant without loving each other ; their 
mutual love is, again, personified, because in God to love is 
still to exist, God being love itself. This third Person, thus 
co-eternal with the other two Persons, is the Holy Ghost. 
But the inhabitants with God can alone understand these 
wonders, and they understand because they see them. 
The free-thinker, surrounded by the mysteries of nature, 



32 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



and who is to himself a complete mystery, is not willing to 
admit of any in religion. "I only wish to believe," he 
says, " what I understand " ! The poor fool would not be- 
lieve much were he taken at his word. He would neither 
believe in the food he takes, seeing that he could not ex- 
plain how it imparts nourishment, nor in the light of the 
sun, since he does not apprehend how it brings him into 




relation with distant objects, nor even in his own argu- 
ments, since he does not comprehend how T his mind evokes 
and gives them shape. 

Literally speaking, there exist no mysteries, there are 
only truths ; but truth becomes a mystery to him who does 
not understand it. Writing is a mystery to one who knows 
not how to read ; it ceases to be so to any one who has re- 
ceived instruction. According as we educate the soul and 
widen the measure of knowledge, mysteries begin to dis- 
appear in proportion ; therefore is it that there are no 
mysteries in heaven, because the angels and the blessed 
behold with open gaze the objects whereof we now possess 



THE MOVABLE FEASTS. 



83 



but the mysterious definition. To deserve to behold them 
one day in their heavenly company, one condition is 
requisite, namely, to adore them meanwhile with steadfast 
and perfect faith in the word of God, which proposes them 
for our belief. In the realm of nature a mystery is a 
truth not understood, which one believes withal because 
one sees it. In the sphere of religion a mystery is a truth 
not understood, which one believes because God has re- 
vealed it. 

Reflection. — Wherefore rebel against the word of God ? 
Is it not " as if the clay should rebel against the potter, 
and the work should say to the worker thereof, Thou un- 
derstandest not " ? 

CORPUS CHRISTI. 

ill the thirteenth century the Church had not 
thought of establishing a special festival in honor of 
the Blessed Sacrament, being satisfied with celebrating on 
Holy Thursday the institution of this divine mystery. 
At that period, however, as heresiarchs dared to attack the 
Eeal Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and nu- 
merous miracles and special revelations had occurred to 
concentrate the attention of the Christian world on this 
dogma, Pope Urban IV. decreed, in 1244, that a special 
feast should be instituted, which, by its solemnity and 
pomp, should be as a protestation in favor of the unwaver- 
ing faith of the Church, and should, at the same time, 
offer an honorable reparation for the blasphemies of im- 
pious men. But this pontiff happening to die soon after, 
the Bull had not all the effect intended, and it was only 
after the Council of Yienne, held in 1332, that the feast of 
the Blessed Sacrament, or Corpus Christi, was definitively 
established throughout the Catholic world. The holy 
Council of Trent newly approved in a formal and earnest 
manner both the worship itself and its attendant pomp. 



34 



THE MOVABLE FEAST* £>. 



The feast of Corpus Christi is then a solemn act of faith 
in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed 
Eucharist ; and this belief, to which the Church attaches 
an importance of the highest moment, is the very ground- 
work of Catholicity, or rather is the very essence of all 
Christianity ; for if Jesus Christ be not present really and 
corporeally under the elements of bread and wine, as He 
has Himself formally told us, His word is no longer reliable, 




He is no longer God, and there remains of religion naught 
save a beautiful but sterile philosophy, which each one can 
remodel after his own mind. If it be allowable, as Prot- 
estants contend, to interpret in a purely allegorical sense 
words of such clearness that there are not, throughout the 
whole of the Gospel, any more positive or precise, it is 
permissible to interpret everything at will, and the Gospel 
remains an enigma, the solution whereof is nowhere to be 
found. It is furthermore the intention of the Church to 
make an avowal of her love and gratitude to Our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, and to offer reparation for all the profanations 



the movable feasts. 



35 



and sacrileges to which this adorable sacrament has been 
exposed. 

Reflection. — O weak-hearted and lukewarm Christians ! 
0 ye infidels, unbelievers, and heretics of all ages ! "if 
you did but know the gift of God, you would perhaps have 
asked of Him, and He would have given you living 
water ! " 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 

LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



January 1.— THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD. 

amcuMCisiON was a sacrament of the Old Law, and the 
first legal observance required by Almighty God of 
the descendants of Abraham. It was a sacrament of 
initiation in the service of God, and a promise and en- 
gagement to believe and act as He had revealed and 
directed. The law of circumcision continued in force until 
the death of Christ, and Our Saviour being born under the 
law, it became Rim, Who came to teach mankind obedi- 
ence to the law of God, to fulfil all justice, and to submit 
to it. Therefore He was circumcised that He might redeem 
them that were under the law, by freeing them from the 
servitude of it ; and that those who were in the condition 
of servants before might be set at liberty, and receive the 
adoption of sons in Baptism, which, by Christ's institution, 
succeeded to circumcision. On the day that the divine 
Infant was circumcised, He received the name of Jesus, 
which signifies Saviour, which had been given Him by the 
angel before He was conceived. That name, so beautiful, 
so glorious, the divine Child does not wish to bear for one 
moment without fulfilling its meaning ; even at the mo- 
ment of His circumcision He showed Himself a Saviour by 

37 



88 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL 



[ JANUARY £. 



shedding for us that blood a single drop of which is more 
than sufficient for the ransom and salvation of the whole 
world. 



Reflection. — Let us profit by the circumstance of the 
new year, and of the wonderful renewal wrought in the 




world by the great mystery of this day, to renew in our 
hearts an increase of fervor and of generosity in the ser- 
vice of God. May this year be one of fervor and of prog- 
ress ! It will go by rapidly, like that which has just 
ended. If God permits us to see its end, how glad and 
happy we shall be to have passed it holily ! 

January 2 ST. FULGENTIUS, Bishop. 

IN spite of family troubles and delicate health, Fulgen- 
tius was appointed at an early age procurator of his 
province at Carthage. This success, however, did not 
satisfy his heart. Levying the taxes proved daily more 
distasteful, and when he was twenty-two, St. Austin's 
treatise on the Psalms decided him to enter religion. After 



JANUARY 2.J 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



39 



six years of peace, his monastery was attacked by Arian 
heretics, and Fulgentius himself driven out destitute to the 
desert. He now sought the solitude of Egypt, but finding 
that country also in schism, he turned his steps to Rome. 
There the splendors of the imperial court only told him of 
the greater glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, and at the 
first lull in the persecution he resought his African cell. 
Elected bishop in 508, he was summoned forth to face new 
dangers, and was shortly after banished by the Arian king, 
Thrasimund, with fifty-nine orthodox prelates, to Sardinia. 
Though the youngest of the exiles, he was at once the 
mouthpiece of his brethren and the stay of their flocks. By 
his books and letters, which are still extant, he confounded 
both Pelagian and Arian heresiarchs, and confirmed the 
Catholics in Africa and Gaul. An Arian priest betrayed 
Fulgentius to the JSTumiclians, and ordered him to be 
scourged. This was done. His hair and beard were 
plucked out, and he was left naked, his body one bleeding 
sore. Even the Arian bishop was ashamed of this 
brutality, and offered to punish the priest if the Saint 
would prosecute him. But Fulgentius replied, " A Chris- 
tian must not seek revenge in this world. God knows 
how to right His servants' wrongs. If I were to bring the 
punishment of man on that priest, I should lose my own 
reward with God. And it would be a scandal to many 
little ones that a Catholic and a monk, however unworthy 
he be, should seek redress from an Arian bishop." On 
Thrasimund's death the bishops returned to their flocks, 
and Fulgentius, having reestablished discipline in his see, 
retired to an island monastery, where after a year's prepa- 
ration he died in peace in the year 533. 

Reflection. — Each year may bring us fresh changes and 
trials ; let us learn from St. Fulgentius to receive all that 
happens as from the hand of God, and appointed for our 
salvation. 



40 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JANUARY 2. 



ST. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 

/nrvACARius when a youth left his fruit-stall at Alex- 
audria to join the great St. Antony. The patri- 
arch, warned by a miracle of his disciple's sanctity, 
named him the heir of his virtues. His life was one long 
conflict with self. U I am tormenting my tormentor," 
replied he to one who met him bent double with a basket 




of sand in the heat of the day. " Whenever I am slothful 
and idle, I am pestered by desires for distant travel.'" 
When he was quite worn out he returned to his cell. Since 
sleep at times overpowered him, he kept watch for twenty 
days and nights ; being about to faint, he entered his cell 
and slept, but henceforth slept only at will. A gnat stung 
him; he killed it. In revenge for this softness he remained 
naked in a marsh till his body was covered with noxious 
bites and he was recognized only by his voice. Once 
when thirsty he received a present of grapes, but passed 



JANUARY 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



41 



them untouched to a hermit who was toiling in the heat. 
This one gave them to a third, who handed them to a 
fourth ; thus the grapes went the round of the desert 
and returned to Macarius, who thanked God for his 
brethren's abstinence. Macarius saw demons assailing 
the hermits at prayer. They put their fingers into the 
mouths of some, and made them yawn. They closed the 
eyes of others, and walked upon them when asleep. They 
placed vain and sensual images before many of the 
brethren, and then mocked those who were captivated by 
them. None vanquished the devils effectually save those 
who by constant vigilance repelled them at once. Maca- 
rius visited one hermit daily for four months, but never 
could speak to him, as he was always in prayer ; so he 
called him an " angel on earth." After being many years 
Superior, Macarius fled in disguise to St. Pachomius, to 
begin again as his novice ; but St. Pachomius, instructed 
by a vision, bade him return to his brethren, who loved 
him as their father. In his old age, thinking nature 
tamed, he determined to spend five days alone in prayer. 
On the third day the cell seemed on fire, and Macarius 
came forth. God permitted this delusion, he said, lest he 
be ensnared by pride. At the age of seventy-three he was 
driven into exile and brutally outraged by the Arian 
heretics. He died a.d. 394. 

Reflection. — Prayer is the breath of the soul. But St. 
Macarius teaches us that mind and body must be brought 
to subjection before the soul is free to pray. 

January 3 ST. GENEVIEVE, Virgin. 

enevieve was born at Nanterre, near Paris. St. Ger- 
manus, when passing through, specially noticed a 
little shepherdess, and predicted her future sanctity. At 
seven years of age she made a vow of perpetual chas- 
tity. After the death of her parents, Paris became 



42 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JANUARY 3. 



her abode ; but she often travelled on works of mercy, 
which, by the gifts of prophecy and miracles, she unfail- 
ingly performed. At one time she was cruelly persecuted : 
her enemies, jealous of her power, called her a hypocrite 
and tried to drown her ; but St. Germanus having sent 
her some blessed bread as a token of esteem, the outcry 
ceased, and ever afterwards she was honored as a Saint. 
During the siege of Paris by Childeric, king of the Franks, 
Genevieve went out with a few followers and procured corn 
for the starving citizens. Nevertheless Childeric, though 
a pagan, respected her, and at her request spared the lives 
of many prisoners. By her exhortations again, when 




Attila and his Huns were approaching the city, the in- 
habitants, instead of taking flight, gave themselves to 
prayer and penance, and averted, as she had foretold, 
the impending scourge. Clovis, when converted from 
paganism by his holy wife, St. Clotilda, made Genevieve 
his constant adviser, and, in spite of his violent char- 
acter, became a generous and Christian king. She died 



JANUARY 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAiKTS. 



43 



within a few weeks of that monarch, in 512, aged eighty- 
nine. 

A pestilence broke ont at Paris in 1129, which in a short 
time swept off fourteen thousand persons, and, in spite of 
all human efforts, daily added to its victims. At length, 
on November 26th, the shrine of St. Genevieve was carried 
in solemn procession through the city. That same day but 
three persons died, the rest recovered, and no others were 
taken ill. This was but the first of a series of miraculous 
favors which the city of Paris has obtained through the 
relics of its patron Saint. 

Reflection. — Genevieve was only a poor peasant girl, 
but Christ dwelt in her heart. She was anointed with His 
Spirit, and with power ; she went about doing good, and 
God was with her. 

January 4. — ST. TITUS, Bishop. 

itus was a convert from heathenism, a disciple of St. 
Paul, one of the chosen companions of the Apostle in 
his journey to the Council of Jerusalem, and his fellow- 
laborer in many apostolic missions. From the Second 
Epistle which St. Paul sent by the hand of Titus to the 
Corinthians we gain an insight into his character and un- 
derstand the strong affection which his master bore him. 
Titus had been commissioned to carry out a twofold office 
needing much firmness, discretion, and charity. He was to 
be the bearer of a severe rebuke to the Corinthians, who 
were giving scandal and were wavering in their faith ; and 
at the same time he was to put their charity to a further test 
by calling upon them for abundant alms for the church at 
Jerusalem. St. Paul meanwhile was anxiously awaiting the 
result. At Troas he writes, U I had no rest in my spirit, 
because I found not Titus, my brother." He set sail to 
Macedonia. Here at last Titus brought the good news. 




44 



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[ JANUARY 4. 



His success had been complete. He reported the sorrow, 
the zeal, the generosity of the Corinthians, till the Apostle 
could not contain his joy, and sent back to them his faith- 
ful messenger with the letter of comfort from which we 
have quoted. Titus was finally left as a bishop in Crete, 
and here he, in turn, received the epistle which bears his 
name, and here at last he died in peace. 

The mission of Titus to Corinth shows us how well the 
disciple caught the spirit of his master. He knew how to 
be firm and to inspire respect. The Corinthians, we are 
told, "received him with fear and trembling." He was 
patient and painstaking. St. Paul 1 1 gave thanks to God, 
Who had put such carefulness for them in the heart of 
Titus." And these gifts were enhanced by a quickness to 
detect and call out all that was good in others, and by a 
joyousness which overflowed upon the spirit of St. Paul 
himself, who "abundantly rejoiced in the joy of Titus." 

Reflection. — Saints win their empire over the hearts of 
men by their wide and affectionate sympathy. This Was 
the characteristic gift of St. Titus, as it was of St. Paul, St. 
Francis Xavier, and many others. 

ST. GREGORY, Bishop. 

t. Gregory was one of the principal senators of 
Autun, and continued from the death of his wife a 
widower till the age of fifty-seven, at which time, for 
his singular virtues, he was consecrated Bishop of Langres, 
which see he governed with admirable prudence and 
zeal thirty-three years, sanctifying his pastoral labors by 
the most profound humility, assiduous prayer, and ex- 
traordinary abstinence and mortification. An incredible 
number of infidels were converted by him from idolatry, 
and worldly Christians from their disorders. He died about 
the beginning of the year 541, but some days after the 




JANUARY 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



45 




Epiphany. Out of devotion to St. Benignus, he desired to 
be buried near that Saint's tomb at Dijon ; this was exe- 
cuted by his virtuous son Tetricus, who succeeded him in 
his bishopric. 



January 5 ST. SIMEON STYLITES. 

|^ne winter's day, about the year 401, the snow lay 
thick around Sisan, a little town in Cilicia. A 
shepherd boy, who could not lead his sheep to the fields 
on account of the cold, went to the church instead, and 
listened to the eight Beatitudes, which were read that 
morning. He asked how these blessings were to be ob- 
tained, and when he was told of the monastic life a thirst 
for perfection arose within him. He became the wonder 
of the world, the great St. Simeon Stylites. He was 
warned that perfection would cost him dear, and so it did. 
A mere child, he began the monastic life, and therein 
passed a dozen years in superhuman austerity. He bound 
a rope round his waist till the flesh was putrefied. He ate 



46 



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[ JANUARY 5. 



but once in seven days, and, when God led him to a solitary 
life, kept fasts of forty days. Thirty-seven years he spent 
on the top of pillars, exposed to heat and cold, day and 
night adoring the majesty of God. Perfection was all in 
all to St. Simeon ; the means nothing, except in so far as 




God chose them for him. The solitaries of Egypt were sus- 
picious of a life so new and so strange, and they sent one 
of their number to bid St. Simeon come down from his 
pillar and return to the common life. In a moment the 
Saint made ready to descend ; but the Egyptian reli- 
gious was satisfied with this proof of humility. " Stay," he 
said, " and take courage ; your way of life is from 
God." 

Cheerfulness, humility, and obedience set their seal upon 
the austerities of St. Simeon. The words which God put 
into his mouth brought crowds of heathen to baptism and 
of sinners to penance. At last, in the year 460, those who 
watched below noticed that he had been motionless three 
whole days. They ascended, and found the old man's body 
still bent in the attitude of prayer, but his soul was with 



JANUARY 6.] 



LIVES OF THE BAT NTS. 



God. Extraordinary as the life of St. Simeon may appear, it 
teaches us two plain and practical lessons : First, we must 
constantly renew within ourselves an intense desire for per- 
fection. Secondly, we must use with fidelity and courage 
the means of perfection God points out. 

Reflection. — St. Augustine says: "This is the business 
of our life : by effort and by toil, by prayer and supplica- 
tion, to advance in the grace of God, till we come to that 
height of perfection in which with clean hearts we may 
behold God." 



January 6. — THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD. 

^£^he word Epiphany means "manifestation," and it 
has passed into general acceptance throughout the 
universal Church, from the fact that Jesus Christ mani- 
fested to the eyes of men His divine mission on this 
day first of all, when a miraculous star revealed His birth 
to the kings of the East, who, in spite of the difficul- 
ties and dangers of a long and tedious journey through 
deserts and mountains almost impassable, hastened at once 
to Bethlehem to adore Him and to offer Him mystical 
presents, as to the King of kings, to the God of heaven 
aud earth, and to a Man withal feeble and mortal. The 
second manifestation was when, going out from the waters 
of the Jordan after having received Baptism from the 
hands of St. John, the Holy Ghost descended on Him in 
the visible form of a dove, and a voice from heaven was 
heard, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am 
well pleased." The third manifestation was that of His 
divine power, when at the marriage-feast of Cana He 
changed the water into wine, at the sight whereof His dis- 
ciples believed in Him. The remembrance of these three 
great events, concurring to the same end, the Church has 
wished to celebrate in one and the same festival. 



48 



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[JANUARY K. 



Reflection. — Admire the almighty power of this little 
Child, Who from His cradle makes known His coming to 
the shepherds and magi — to the shepherds by means of His 
angel, to the magi by a star in the East. Admire the 
docility of these kings. Jesus is born : behold them at His 




feet ! Let us be little, let us hide ourselves, and the divine 
strength will be granted to us. Let us be docile and quick 
in following divine inspirations, and we shall then become 
wise of the wisdom of God, powerful of His almighty 
power. 

January 7 ST. LUCIAN, Martyr. 

t. Lucian was born at Samosata in Syria. Having 
lost his parents in his youth, he distributed all his 
worldly goods, of which he inherited an abundant share, 
to the poor, and withdrew to Edessa, to live near a holy 
man named Macarius, who imbued his mind with a knowl- 
edge of the Holy Scriptures, and led him to the practice 




JANUARY 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



49 



of the Christian virtues. Having become a priest, his 
time was divided between the external duties of his holy 
state, the performance of works of charity, and the study 
of sacred literature. He revised the books of the Old and 
New Testaments, expunging the errors which had found 
their way into the text either through the negligence of 
copyists or the malice of heretics, thus preparing the way 
for St. Jerome, who shortly after was to give to the world 
the Latin translation known as u The Vulgate." Having 
been denounced as a Christian, Lucian was thrown into 
prison and condemned to the torture, which was protracted 
for twelve whole days. Some Christians visited him in 
prison, on the feast of the Epiphany, and brought bread 
and wine to him ; while bound and chained down on his 




back, he consecrated the divine mysteries upon his own 
breast, and communicated the faithful who were present. 
He finished his glorious career in prison, and died with the 
words, u I am a Christian," on his lips. 

Reflection. — If we would keep our faith pure, we must 



50 



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[ JANUARY 8. 



study its holy truths. We cannot detect falsehood till we 
know and love the truth ; and to us the truth is not an 
abstraction, but a Person, Jesus Christ, God and Man. 

January 8 ST. APOLLINARIS, THE APOLOGIST, 

Bishop. 

aLAUDius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis in 
Phrygia, was one of the most illustrious prelates of 
the second age. Notwithstanding the great encomiums 
bestowed on him by Eusebius, St. Jerome, Theodoret, and 




others, but little is known of his actions ; and his writ- 
ings, which then were held in great esteem, seem now 
to be all lost. He wrote many able treatises against the 
heretics, and pointed out, as St. Jerome testifies, from 
what philosophical sect each heresy derived its errors. 
Nothing rendered his name so illustrious, however, as his 
noble apology for the Christian religion which he addressed 
to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, about the year 175, soon 
after the miraculous victory that prince had obtained over 



JANUARY 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



51 



the Quadi by the prayers of the Christians. St. Apollinaris 
reminded the emperor of the benefit he had received from 
God through the prayers of his Christian subjects, and 
implored protection for them against the persecution of the 
pagans. Marcus Aurelius published an edict in which he 
forbade any one, under pain of death, to accuse a Chris- 
tian on account of his religion ; but, by a strange incon- 
sistency, he had not the courage to abolish the laws then 
in force against the Christians, and, as a consequence, 
many of them suffered martyrdom, though their accusers 
were also put to death. The date of St. Apollinaris' death 
is not known ; the Roman Martyrology mentions him on 
the 8th of January. 

Reflection. — "Therefore I say unto you, all things 
whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall 
receive : and they shall come unto yon." 

January 9.— SS. JULIAN and BASILISSA, Martyrs. 

C^t. Julian and St. Basilissa, though married, lived, 
by mutual consent, in perpetual chastity ; they 
sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of 
an ascetic life, and employed their revenues in reliev- 
ing the poor and the sick. For this purpose they con- 
verted their house into a kind of hospital, in which they 
sometimes entertained a thousand poor people. Basilissa 
attended those of her sex, in separate lodgings from the 
men ; these were taken care of by Julian, who from his 
charity is named the Hospitalarian. Egypt, where they 
lived, had then begun to abound with examples of persons 
who, either in the cities or in the deserts, devoted them- 
selves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, 
and mortification. Basilissa, after having stood seven 
persecutions, died in peace ; Julian survived her many 
years and received the crown of a glorious martyrdom, 



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[JANUARY 9. 



together with Celsus, a youth, Antony, a priest, Anastasius, 
and Marcianilla, the mother of Celsus. Many churches 
and hospitals in the East, and especially in the West, bear 
the name of one or other of these martyrs. Four churches 
at Eome, and three out of five at Paris, which bear the 
name of St. Julian, were originally dedicated under the 
name of St. Julian, the Hospitalarian and martyr. In the 
time of St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. Julian was 
brought out of the East into France, and given to Queen 
Brunehault ; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded 
at Etampes ; part of it is at present in the monastery of 
Morigny, near Etampes, and part in the church of the reg- 
ular canonesses of St. Basilissa at Paris. 




Reflection. — God often rewards men for works that are 
pleasing in His sight by giving them grace and opportunity 
to do other works higher still. St. Augustine said, "I 
have never seen a compassionate and charitable man die a 
bad death." 



JANUARY 10.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



53 




January 10 ST. WILLJAM, Archbishop. 

illiam Berruyer, of the illustrious family of the 
ancient Counts of Nevers, was educated by Peter 
the Hermit, Archdeacon of Soissons, his uncle by the 
mother's side. From his infancy William learned to de- 
spise the folly and emptiness of the world, to abhor its 
pleasures, and to tremble at its dangers. His only de- 
light was in exercises of piety and in his studies, in 
which he employed his whole time with indefatigable ap- 
plication. He was made canon, first of Soissons and after- 
wards of Paris ; but he soon resolved to abandon the world, 
and retired into the solitude of Grandmont, where he lived 
with great regularity in that austere Order until finally he 
joined the Cistercians, then in wonderful odor of sanctity. 
After some time he was chosen Prior of the Abbey of Pon- 
tigny, and afterwards became Abbot of Chaalis. On the 
death of Henri de Sully, Archbishop of Bourges, William 
was chosen to succeed him. The announcement of this 
new dignity which had fallen on him overwhelmed him 



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[JANUARY 11. 



with grief, and he would not have accepted the office had 
not the Pope and his General, the Abbot of Citeaux, com- 
manded him to do so. His first care in his new position 
was to conform his life to the most perfect rules of sanctity. 
He redoubled all his austerities, saying it was incumbent 
on him now to do penance for others as well as for himself. 
He always wore a hair-shirt under his religious habit, and 
never added to his clothing in winter or diminished it in 
summer ; he never ate any flesh-meat, though he had it at 
his table for strangers. When he drew near his end, he 
was, at his request, laid on ashes in his hair-cloth, and in 
this posture expired on the 10th of January, 1209. His 
body was interred in his cathedral, and, being honored by 
many miracles, was taken up in 1217, and in the year fol- 
lowing William was canonized by Pope Honorius III. 

Reflection. — The champions of faith prove the truth of 
their teaching no less by the holiness of their lives than by 
the force of their arguments. Never forget that to convert 
others we must first see to our own souls. 

January 11. — ST. THEODOSIUS, THE CENOBIARCH. 

heodosius was born in Cappadocia in 423. The ex- 
ample of Abraham urged him to leave his coun- 
try, and his desire to follow Jesus Christ attracted him 
to the religious life. He placed himself under Longi- 
nus, a very holy hermit, who sent him to govern a monas- 
tery near Bethlehem. Unable to bring himself to command 
others, he fled to a cavern, where he lived in penance and 
prayer. His great charity, however, forbade him to refuse 
the charge of some disciples, who, few at first, became in 
time a vast number, and Theodosius built a large monas- 
tery and three churches for them. He became eventually 
Superior of the religious communities of Palestine. Theo- 
dosius accommodated himself so carefully to the characters 



JANUARY 11. J 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



of his subjects that his reproofs were loved rather than 
dreaded. But once he was obliged to separate from the 
communion of the others a religious guilty of a grave fault. 
Instead of humbly accepting his sentence, the monk was 
arrogant enough to pretend to excommunicate Theodosius 
in revenge. Theodosius thought not of indignation, nor 
of his own position, but meekly submitted to this false and 
unjust excommunication. This so touched the heart of his 
disciple that he submitted at once and acknowledged his 
fault. Theodosius never refused assistance to any in 
poverty or affliction ; on some days the monks laid more 
than a hundred tables for those in want. In times of 




famine Theodosius forbade the alms to be diminished, and 
often miraculously multiplied the provisions. He also built 
five hospitals, in which he lovingly served the sick, while 
by assiduous spiritual reading he maintained himself in 
perfect recollection. He successfully opposed the Eutychian 
heresy in Jerusalem, and for this was banished by the em- 
peror. He suffered a long and painful malady, and refused 
to pray to be cured, calling it a salutary penance for his 



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[JANUARY 12. 



former successes. He died at the age of a hundred and 
six. 

Reflection.— St. Theodosius, for the sake of charity, 
sacrificed all he most prized — his home for the love of God, 
and his solitude for the love of his neighbor. Can ours be 
true charity if it costs us little or nothing ? 

January 12.— ST. AELRED, Abbot. 

I^vne thing thou lackest." In these words God called 
Aelrecl from the court of a royal Saint, David of 
Scotland, to the silence of the cloister. He left the king, 
the companions of his youth, and a friend most dear, to 
obey the call. The conviction that in the world his soul 
was in danger alone enabled him to break such ties. 
Long afterwards the bitterness of the parting remained 
fresh in his soul, and he declared that, "though he 
had left his dear ones in the body to serve his Lord, his 
heart was ever with them." He entered the Cistercian 
Order, and even there his yearning for sympathy showed 
itself in a special attraction to one among the brethren 
named Simon. This holy monk had left the world in his 
youth, and appeared as one deaf and dumb, so absorbed 
was he in God. One day Aelred, forgetting for the mo- 
ment the rule of perpetual silence, spoke to him. At once 
he prostrated himself at his feet in token of his fault ; but 
Simon's look of pain and displeasure haunted him for many 
a year, and taught him to let no human feeling disturb for 
one moment his union with God. A certain novice once 
came to Aelred, saying that he must return to the world. 
But Aelred had begged his soul of God, and answered, 
"Brother, ruin not thyself; nevertheless thou canst not, 
even though thou wouldst." However, he would not 
listen, and wandered among the hills, thinking all the 
while lie was going far from the abbey. At sunset he found 



JANUARY 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



57 



himself before a convent strangely like Eieveaux, and so it 
was. The first .monk he met was Aelrecl, who fell on his 
neck, saying, " Son, why hast thou done so with me? Lo ! 
I have wept for thee with many tears, and I trust in God 
that, as I have asked of Him, thou shalt not perish." The 
world does not so love its friends. At the command of his 
superiors Aelred composed his great works, the Spiritual 
Friendship and the Mirror of Charity'. In the latter he 




says that true love of God is only to be obtained by joining 
ourselves in all things to the Passion of Christ. He died 
in 1167, founder and Abbot of Rieveaux, the most austere 
monastery in England, and Superior of some three hun- 
dred monks. 

Reflection. — "When a man has given himself to God, 
God gives back friendship with all His other gifts a hun- 
dredfold. Friends are then loved no longer for themselves 
only, but for God, and that with a love lively and tender ; 
for God can easily purify feeling. It is not feeling, but 
self-love, which corrupts friendship. 



58 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JANUARY 13. 



January 13 ST. VERONICA OF MILAN. 

'eronica's parents were peasants of a village near 



* Milan. From her childhood she toiled hard in the 
house and the field, and accomplished cheerfully every 
menial task. Gradually the desire for perfection grew 
within her ; she became deaf to the jokes and songs 
of her companions, and sometimes, when reaping and 
hoeing, would hide her face and weep. Knowing no let- 
ters, she began to be anxious about her learning, and rose 
secretly at night to teach herself to read. Our Lady told 
her that other things were necessary, but not this. She 
showed Veronica three mystical letters which would teach 
her more than books. The first signified purity of inten- 
tion ; the second, abhorrence of murmuring or criticism ; 
the third, daily meditation on the Passion. By the first 
she learned to begin her daily duties for no human motive, 
but for God alone ; by the second, to carry out what she 
had thus begun by attending to her own affairs, never 
judging her neighbor, but praying for those who manifestly 
erred ; by the third she was enabled to forget her own 
pains and sorrows in those of her Lord, and to weep hourly, 
but silently, over the memory of His wrongs. She had 
constant ecstasies, and saw in successive visions the whole 
life of Jesus, and many other mysteries. Yet, by a special 
grace, neither her raptures nor her tears ever interrupted 
her labors, which ended only with death. After three 
years' patient waiting she was received as a lay-sister in 
the convent of St. Martha at Milan. • The community was 
extremely poor, and Veronica's duty was to beg through 
the city for their daily food. Three years after receiving 
the habit she was afflicted with secret but constant bodily 
pains, yet never would consent to be relieved of any of her 
labors, or to omit one of her prayers. By exact obedience 
she became a living copy of the rule, and obeyed with a 




January 14.] lives oF The saints. 



smile the least hint of her Superior. She sought to the last 
the most hard and humbling occupations, and in their per- 
formance enjoyed some of the highest favors ever granted 
to Saint. She died in 1497, on the day she had foretold, 




after a six months' illness, aged fifty-two years, and in the 
thirtieth of her religious profession. 

Reflection. — When Veronica was urged in sickness to 
accept some exemption from her labors, her one answer 
was, " I must work while I can, while I have time." Dare 
we, then, waste ours ? 

January 14. — ST. HILARY OF POITIERS. 

t. Hilary was a native of Poitiers in Aquitaine. 
Born and educated a pagan, it was not till near 
middle age that he embraced Christianity, moved thereto 
mainly by the idea of God presented to him in the Holy 
Scriptures. He soon converted his wife and daughter, 
and separated himself rigidly from all un- Catholic com- 




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[JANUARY 14. 



pany. In the beginning of his conversion St. Hilary would 
not eat with Jews or heretics, nor salute them by the way ; 
but afterwards, for their sake, he relaxed this severity. 
He entered Holy Orders, and in 353 was chosen bishop of 
his native city. Arianism, under the protection of the 
Emperor Constantius, was just, then in the height of its 
power, and St. Hilary found himself called upon to support 
the orthodox cause in several Gallic councils, in which 
Arian bishops formed an overwhelming majority. He was 
in consequence accused to the emperor, w r ho banished him 
to Phrygia. He spent his three years and more of exile in 




composing his great works on the Trinity. In 359 he at- 
tended the Council of Seleucia, in w 7 hich Arians, semi- 
Arians, and Catholics contended for the mastery. With 
the deputies of the council he proceeded to Constantinople, 
and there so dismayed the heads of the Arian party that 
they prevailed upon the emperor to let him return to Gaul. 
He traversed Gaul, Italy, and Illyria, wmerever he came 
discomfiting the heretics and procuring the triumph of 



January 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



61 



orthodoxy. After seven or eight years of missionary travel 
he returned to Poitiers, where he died in peace in 368. 

Reflection. — Like St. Hilary, we, too, are called to a 
lifelong contest with heretics ; we shall succeed in propor- 
tion as we combine hatred of heresy with compassion for 
its victims. 

January 15. — ST. PAUL, the First Hermit. 

t. Paul was born in Upper Egypt, about the year 230, 
and became an orphan at the age of fifteen. He was 
very rich and highly educated. Fearing lest the tortures 
of a terrible persecution might endanger his Christian 
perseverance, he retired into a remote village. But his 
pagan brother-in-law denounced him, and St. Paul, rather 
than remain where his faith was in danger, entered the 
barren desert, trusting that God would supply his wants. 
And his confidence was rewarded ; for on the spot to which 
Providence led him he found the fruit of the palm-tree for 
food, and its leaves for clothing, and the water of the 
spring for drink. His first design was to return to the 
world when the persecution was over ; but, tasting great 
delights in prayer and penance, he remained the rest of 
his life, ninety years, in penance, prayer, and contempla- 
tion. God revealed his existence to St. Antony, who 
sought him for three days. Seeing a thirsty she-wolf run 
through an opening in the rocks, Antony followed her to 
look for water, and found Paul. They knew each other at 
once, and praised God together. When St. Antony visited 
him, a raven brought him a loaf , and St. Paul said, " See 
how good God is ! For sixty years this bird has brought 
me half a loaf every day ; now thou art come, Christ has 
doubled the provision for His servants. " Having passed the 
night in prayer, at dawn of day Paul told Antony that he 
was about to die, and asked to be buried in the cloak given 




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LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JANUARY 16. 



to Antony by St. Athanasius. Antony hastened to fetch 
it, and on his way back saw Paul rise to heaven in glory. 
He found his dead body kneeling as if in prayer, and two 




lions came and dug his grave. Paul died in his one hun- 
dred and thirteenth year. 



Reflection. — We shall never repent of having trusted in 
God, for He cannot fail those who lean on Him ; nor shall 
we ever trust in ourselves without being deceived. 

January 16.— ST. HONORATUS, Archbishop. 

T. Honoratus w T as of a consular Roman family 
settled in Gaul. In his youth he renounced the 
worship of idols, and gained his elder brother, Venan- 
tius, to Christ. Convinced of the hollowness of the things 
of this world, they wished to renounce it with all its 
pleasures, but a fond pagan father put continual obstacles 
in their way. At length, taking with them St. Caprais, a 
holy hermit, for their director, they sailed from Marseilles 
to Greece, with the intention to live there unknown in 




January 16. j 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



some desert. Venantins soon died happily at Methone, 
and Honoratus, being also sick, was obliged to return with 
his conductor. He first led a hermitical life in the moun- 
tains near Frejus. Two small islands lie in the sea near 
that coast ; on the smaller, now known as St. Honore, our 
Saint settled, and, being -followed by others, he there 
founded the famous monastery of Lerins, about the year 
400. Some of his followers he appointed to live in com- 
munity ; others, who seemed more perfect, in separate cells 
as anchorets. His rule was chiefly borrowed from that of 
St. Pachomius. Nothing can be more amiable than the 




description St. Hilary has given of the excellent virtues of 
this company of saints, especially of the charity, concord, 
humility, compunction, and devotion which reigned among 
them under the conduct of our holy abbot. He was, by 
compulsion, consecrated Archbishop of Aries in 426, and 
died, exhausted with austerities and apostolical labors, in 
429. 

Reflection. — The soul cannot truly serve God while it is 
involved in the distractions and pleasures of the world. 



LITTLE PICTORIAL L JANUATlY 1*7- 



St. Honoratus knew this, and chose to be a servant of 
Christ his Lord. Kesolve, in whatever state you are, to 
live absolutely detached from the world, and to separate 
yourself as muck -as possible from it. 

January 17, — ST. ANTONY, Patriarch of Monks. 

t. Antony was born in the year 251, in Upper 
Egypt. Hearing at Mass tke words, "If tkou wilt 
be perfect, go, sell wkat tkou hast, and give to tke 
poor," ke gave away all kis vast possessions. He tken 
begged an aged kermit to teack kim tke spiritual life. He 
also visited various solitaries, copying in kimself tke prin- 
cipal virtue of eack. To serve God more perfectly, An- 
tony entered tke desert and immured kimself in a ruin, 
building up the door so that none could enter. Here the 
devils assaulted him most furiously, appearing as various 
monsters, and even wounding him severely ; but his cour- 
age never failed, and he overcame them all by confidence 
in God and by the sign of the cross. One night, whilst 
Antony was in his solitude, many devils scourged him so 
terribly that he lay as if dead. A friend found him thus, 
and believing him dead carried him home. But when 
Antony came to himself he persuaded his friend to carry 
him, in spite of his wounds, back to his solitude. Here, 
prostrate from weakness, he defied the devils, saying, " I 
fear you not ; you cannot separate me from the love of 
Christ." After more vain assaults the devils fled, and 
Christ appeared to Antony in glory. His only food was 
bread and water, which he never tasted before sunset, and 
sometimes only once in two, three, or four days. He w T ore 
sackcloth and sheepskin, and he often knelt in prayer from 
sunset to sunrise. Many souls flocked to him for advice, 
and after twenty years of solitude he consented to guide 
them in holiness— thus founding the first monastery. His 
numerous miracles attracted such multitudes that he fled 




JANUARY 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



65 



again into solitude, where he lived by manual labor. He 
expired peacefully at a very advanced age. St. Athanasius, 
his biographer, says that the mere knowledge of how St. 
Antony lived is a good guide to virtue. 




Reflection. — The more violent were the assaults of 
temptation suffered by St. Antony, the more firmly did he 
grasp his weapons, namely, mortification and prayer. Let 
us imitate him in this if we wish to obtain victories like 
his. 



January 18,— ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ROME. 

T. Peter having triumphed over the devil in the East, 
the latter pursued him to Kome in the person of 
Simon Magus. He who had formerly trembled at the voice 
of a poor maid now feared not the very throne of idolatry 
and superstition. The capital of the empire of the world, 
and the centre of impiety, called for the zeal of the Prince 
of Apostles. God had established the Koman Empire, and 
extended its dominion beyond that of any former mon- 




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[JANUARY 18. 



archy, for the more easy propagation of His Gospel. Its 
metropolis was of the greatest importance for this enter- 
prise. St. Peter took that province upon himself, and, 
repairing to Rome, there preached the faith and established 
his ecclesiastical chair. That St. Peter preached in Rome, 
founded the Church there, and died there by martyrdom 
under Nero, are facts the most incontestable, by the testi- 
mony of all writers of different countries who lived near 
that time ; persons of unquestionable veracity, and who 




could not but be informed of the truth in a point so inter- 
esting and of its own nature so public and notorious. 
This is also attested by monuments of every kind ; by the 
prerogatives, rights, and privileges which that church en- 
joyed from those early ages in consequence of this title. 
It was an ancient custom observed by churches to keep an 
annual festival of the consecration of their bishops. The 
feast of the Chair of St. Peter is found in ancient martyr- 
ologies. Christians justly celebrate the founding of this 
mother-church, the centre of Catholic communion, in 



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LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



67 



thanksgiving to God for His mercies to His Church, and to 
implore His future blessings. 

Reflection. — As one of God's greatest mercies to His 
Church, let us earnestly beg of Him to raise up in it zealous 
pastors, eminently replenished with His Spirit, with which 
He animated His apostles. 



January 19 ST. CANUTUS, King, Martyr-. 

C^t. Canutus, King of Denmark, was endowed with 
excellent qualities of both mind and body. It is 
hard to say whether he excelled more in courage or in 
conduct and skill in war ; but his singular piety eclipsed 
all his other endowments. He cleared the seas of pirates, 
and subdued several neighboring provinces which infested 
Denmark with their incursions. The kingdom of Denmark 
was elective till the year 1660, and, when the father of 
Canutus died, his eldest brother, Harold, was called to the 
throne. Harold died after reigning for two years, and 
Canutus was chosen to succeed hirn. He began his reign 
by a successful war against the troublesome, barbarous 
enemies of the state, and by planting the faith in the con- 
quered provinces. Amid the glory of his victories he 
humbly prostrated himself at the foot of the crucifix, lay- 
ing there his diadem, and offering himself and his king- 
dom to the King of kings. After having provided for the 
peace and safety of his country, he married Eltha, daugh- 
ter of Robert, Earl of Flanders, who proved a spouse worthy 
of him. His next concern was to reform abuses at home. 
For this purpose he enacted severe but necessary laws for 
the strict administration of justice, and repressed the vio- 
lence and tyranny of the great, without respect to persons. 
He countenanced and honored holy men, and granted 
many privileges and immunities to the clergy. His charity 
and tenderness towards his subjects made him study by all 



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[JANUARY 19. 



possible ways to make them a happy people. He showed a 
royal munificence in building and adorning churches, and 
gave the crown which he wore, of exceeding great value, to 
a church in his capital and place of residence, where the 
kings of Denmark are yet buried. To the virtues which 
constitute a great king, Canutus added those which prove 
the great saint. A rebellion having sprung up in his king- 
dom, the king was surprised at church by the rebels. Per- 
ceiving his danger, he confessed his sins at the foot of the 




altar, and received Holy Communion. Stretching out his 
arms before the altar, the Saint fervently recommended his 
soul to his Creator ; in this posture he was struck by a 
javelin thrown through a window, and fell a victim for 
Christ's sake. 



Reflection. — The soul of a man is endowed with many 
noble powers, and feels a keen joy in their exercise ; but 
the keenest joy we are capable of feeling consists in pros- 
trating all our powers of mind and heart in humblest 
adoration before the majesty of God, 



JANUARY 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



69 




January 20 ST. SEBASTIAN, Martyr. 

t. Sebastian was an officer in the Roman army, 
esteemed even by the heathen as a good soldier, 
and honored by the Church ever since as a champion 
of Jesus Christ. Born at Narbonne, Sebastian came to 
Rome about the year 284, and entered the lists against the 
powers of evil. He found the twin brothers Marcus and 
Marcellinus in prison for the faith, and, when they were 
near yielding to the entreaties of their relatives, encour- 
aged them to despise flesh and blood, and to die for Christ. 
God confirmed his words by miracle : light shone around 
him while he spoke ; he cured the sick by his prayers ; 
and in this divine strength he led multitudes to the faith, 
among them the Prefect of Rome, with his son Tiburtius. 
He saw his disciples die before him, and one of them came 
back from heaven to tell him that his own end was near. 
It was in a contest of fervor and charity that St. Sebastian 
found the occasion of martyrdom. The Prefect of Rome, 
after his conversion, retired to his estates in Campania, 




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[JANUARY 21. 



and took a great number of his fellow-converts with him 
to this place of safety. It was a question whether Poly- 
carp the priest or St. Sebastian should accompany the 
neophytes. Each was eager to stay and face the danger 
at Rome, and at last the Pope decided that the Roman 
church could not spare the services of Sebastian. He con- 
tinued to labor at the post of danger till he was betrayed 
by a false disciple. He was led before Diocletian, and, at 
the emperor's command, pierced with arrows and left for 
dead. But God raised him up again, and of his own 
accord he went before the emperor and conjured him to 
stay the persecution of the Church. Again sentenced, he 
was at last beaten to death by clubs, and crowned his 
labors by the merit of a double martyrdom. 

Reflection. — Your ordinary occupations will give you 
opportunities of laboring for the faith. Ask help from 
St. Sebastian. He was not a priest nor a religious, but 
a soldier. 

January 21.— ST. AGNES, Virgin, Martyr. 

T. Agnes was but twelve years old when she was led 
to the altar of Minerva at Rome and commanded 
to obey the persecuting laws of Diocletian by offering 
incense. In the midst of the idolatrous rites she raised 
her hands to Christ, her Spouse, and made the sign of 
the life-giving cross. She did not shrink when she was 
bound hand and foot, though the gyves slipped from her 
young hands, and the heathens who stood around were 
moved to tears. The bonds were not needed for her, and 
she hastened gladly to the place of her torture. Next, 
when the judge saw that pain had no terrors for her, he 
inflicted an insult worse than death : her clothes were 
stripped off, and she had to stand in the street before a 
pagan crowd ; yet even this did not daunt her, " Christ," 




JANUARY 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



71 



she said, "will guard His own." So it was. Christ 
showed, by a miracle, the value which He sets upon the 
custody of the eyes. Whilst the crowd turned away their 
eyes from the spouse of Christ, as she stood exposed to 
view in the street, there was one young man who dared 
to gaze at the innocent child with immodest eyes. A flash 
of light struck him blind, and his companions bore him 
away half dead with pain and terror. 

Lastly, her fidelity to Christ was proved by flattery and 
offers of marriage. But she answered, u Christ is my 
Spouse : He chose me first, and His I will be." At length 
the sentence of death was passed. For a moment she 
stood erect in prayer, and then bowed her neck to the 




sword, At one stroke her head was severed from her 
body, and the angels bore her pure soul to Paradise. 

Reflection. — Her innocence endeared St. Agnes to 
Christ, as it has endeared her to His Church ever since. 
Even as penitents we may imitate this innocence of hers 
in our own degree. Let us strictly guard our eyes, and 



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[JANUARY 22. 



Christ, when He sees that we keep our hearts pure for love 
of Him, will renew our youth and give us back the years 
which the canker-worm has wasted. 



'inoent was archdeacon of the church at Saragossa. 



* Valerian, the bishop, had an impediment in his 
speech ; thus Vincent preached in his stead, and an- 
swered in his name when both were brought before 
Dacian, the president, during the persecution of Diocletian. 
When the bishop was sent into banishment, Vincent re- 
mained to suffer and to die. First of all, he was stretched 
on the rack ; and, when he was almost torn asunder, 
Dacian, the president, asked him in mockery " how he 
fared now." Vincent answered, with joy in his face, that 
he had ever prayed to be as he was then. It was in vain 
that Dacian struck the executioners and goaded them on 
in their savage work. The martyr's flesh was torn with 
hooks ; he was bound in a chair of red-hot iron ; lard and 
salt were rubbed into his wounds ; and amid all this he 
kept his eyes raised to heaven, and remained unmoved. 
He was cast into a solitary dungeon, with his feet in the 
stocks ; but the angels of Christ illuminated the darkness, 
and assured Vincent that he was near his triumph. His 
wounds were now tended to prepare him for fresh tor- 
ments, and the faithful were permitted to gaze on his 
mangled body. They came in troops, kissed the open 
sores, and carried away as relics cloths dipped in his blood. 
Before the tortures could recommence, the martyr's hour 
came, and he breathed forth his soul in peace. 

Even the dead bodies of the saints are precious in the 
sight of God, and the hand of iniquity cannot touch them. 
A raven guarded the body of Vincent where it lay flung 
upon the earth. When it was sunk out at sea the waves 
cast it ashore ; and his relics are preserved to this day in 



January 22.— ST. VINCENT, Martyr. 




JANUARY 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



the Augustinian monastery at Lisbon, for the consolation 
of the Church of Christ. 



Reflection. — Do you wish to be at peace amidst suffer- 
ing and temptation? Then make it your principal en- 




deavor to grow in habits of prayer and in union with 
Christ. Have confidence in Him. He will make you 
victorious over your spiritual enemies and over yourself. 
He will enlighten your darkness and sweeten your suffer- 
ings, and in your solitude and desolation He will draw 
nigh to you with His holy angels. 

January 23 ST. RAYMUND OF PENNAFORT. 

BORN a.d. 1175, of a noble Spanish family, Raymund, 
at the age of twenty, taught philosophy at Barce- 
lona with marvellous success. Ten years later his rare 
abilities won for him the degree of Doctor in the Uni- 
versity of , Bologna, and many high dignities. A tender 
devotion to our blessed Lady, which had grown up with 
him from childhood, determined him in middle life to re- 



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nounce all his honors and to enter her Order of St. Dom- 
inic. There, again, a vision of the Mother of Mercy in- 
structed him to cooperate with his penitent St. Peter 
Nolasco, and with James, King of Aragon, in founding the 
Order of Our Lady of Ransom for the Redemption of Cap- 
tives. He began this great work by preaching a crusade 
against the Moors, and rousing to penance the Christians, 
enslaved in both soul and body by the infidel. King James 
of Aragon, a man of great qualities, but held in bond by a 
ruling passion, was bidden by the Saint to put away the 




cause of his sin. On his delay, Raymund asked for leave 
to depart from Majorca, since he could not live with sin. 
The king refused, and forbade, under pain of death, his 
conveyance by others. Full of faith, Raymund spread his 
cloak upon the waters, and, tying one end to his staff as a 
sail, made the sign of the cross and fearlessly stepped upon 
it. In six hours he was borne to Barcelona, where, gather- 
ing up his cloak dry, he stole into his monastery. The 
king, overcome by this miracle, became a sincere penitent 
and the disciple of the Saint till his death. In 1230, 



JANUARY 24.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



75 



Gregory IX. summoned Eaymund to Rome, made him his 
confessor and grand penitentiary, and directed him to 
compile "The Decretals," a collection of the scattered de- 
cisions of the Popes and Councils. Having refused the 
archbishopric of Tarragona, Eaymund found himself in 
1238 chosen third General of his Order ; which post he 
again succeeded in resigning, on the score of his advanced 
age. His first act when set free was to resume his labors 
among the infidels, and in 1256 Raymund, then eighty- 
one, was able to report that ten thousand Saracens had 
received Baptism. He died a.d. 1275. 

Reflection. — Ask St. Raymund to protect you from that 
fearful servitude, worse than any bodily slavery, which 
even one sinful habit tends to form. 

January 24. — ST. TIMOTHY, Bishop, Martyr. 

imothy was a convert of St. Paul. He was born at 
Lystra in Asia Minor. His mother was a Jewess, 
but his father was a pagan ; and though Timothy 
had read the Scriptures from his childhood, he had not 
been circumcised as a Jew. On the arrival of St. Paul at 
Lystra the youthful Timothy, with his mother and grand- 
mother, eagerly embraced the faith. Seven years later, 
when the Apostle again visited the country, the boy had 
grown into manhood, while his good heart, his austerities 
and zeal had won the esteem of all around him ; and holy 
men were prophesying great things of the fervent youth. 
St. Paul at once saw his fitness for the work of an evan- 
gelist. Timothy was forthwith ordained, and from that 
time became the constant and much-beloved fellow-worker 
of the Apostle. In company with St. Paul he visited the 
cities of Asia Minor and Greece — at one time hastening on 
in front as a trusted messenger, at another lingering be- 
hind to confirm in the faith some recently founded church. 



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[JANXJAKY 24. 



Finally, he was made the first Bishop of Ephesus ; and 
here he received the two epistles which bear his name, the 
first written from Macedonia and the second from Eome, 
in which St. Paul from his prison gives vent to his longing 
desire to see his " dearly beloved son," if possible, once 
more before his death. St. Timothy himself, not many 
years after the death of St. Paul, won his martyr's crown 
at Ephesus. As a child Timothy delighted in reading the 




sacred books, and to bis last hour he would remember the 
parting words of his spiritual father, u Attende lectioni — 
Apply thyself to reading." 

Reflection. — St. Paul, in writing to Timothy, a faithful 
and well-tried servant of God, and a bishop now getting on 
in years, addresses him as a child, and seems most anxious 
about his perseverance in faith and piety. The letters 
abound in minute personal instructions for this end. It is 
therefore remarkable what great stress the Apostle lays on 
the avoiding of idle talk, and on the application to holy 
reading. These are his chief topics. Over and over again 



JANUARY 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



he exhorts his son Timothy to "avoid tattlers and busy- 
bodies ; to give no heed to novelties ; to shun profane and 
vain babblings, but to hold the form of sound words ; to 
be an example in word and conversation ; to attend to 
reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine." 

January 25.— THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

he great apostle Paul, named Saul at his circumcision, 
if^ was born at Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, and was 
by privilege a Roman citizen, to which quality a great 
distinction and several exemptions were granted by 
the laws of the empire. He was early instructed in the 
strict observance of the Mosaic law, and lived up to it in 
the most scrupulous manner. In his zeal for the Jewish 
law, which he thought the cause of God, he became a 
violent persecutor of the Christians. He was one of those 
who combined to murder St. Stephen, and in the violent 
persecution of the faithful wiiich followed the martyrdom 
of the holy deacon, Saul signalized himself above others. 
By virtue of the power he had received from the high 
priest, he dragged the Christians out of their houses, 
loaded them with chains, and thrust them into prison. In 
the fury of his zeal he applied for a commission to take up 
all Jews at Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ, and 
bring them bound to Jerusalem, that they might serve as 
examples for the others. But God was pleased to show 
forth in him His patience and mercy. While on his way 
to Damascus, he and his party were surrounded by a light 
from heaven, brighter than the sun, and suddenly struck 
to the ground. And then a voice was heard saying, " Saul, 
Saul, why dost thou persecute Me ? " And Saul answered, 
4 'Who art Thou, Lord?" and the voice replied, "I am 
Jesus, Whom thou dost persecute." This mild expostulation 
of Our Redeemer, accompanied with a powerful interior 
grace, cured Saul's pride, assuaged his rage, and wrought 



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[JANUARY £5. 



at once a total change in him. Wherefore, trembling and 
astonished, he cried out, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me 
to do ? " Our Lord ordered him to arise and to proceed on 
his way to the city, where he should be informed of what 
was expected from him. Saul, arising from the ground, 
found that, though his eyes were open, he saw nothing. 
He was led by hand into Damascus, where he was lodged 
in the house of a Jew named Judas. To this house came 
by divine appointment a holy man named Ananias, who, 




laying his hands on Saul, said, 1 1 Brother Saul, the Lord 
Jesus, Who appeared to thee on thy journey, hath sent me 
that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the 
Holy Ghost." Immediately something like scales fell from 
Saul's eyes, and he recovered his sight. Then he arose 
and was baptized ; he stayed some few days with the dis- 
ciples at Damascus, and began immediately to preach in 
the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. Thus a 
blasphemer and a persecutor was made an apostle, and 



JANUARY 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



79 



chosen as one of God's principal instruments in the con- 
version of the world. 

Reflection. — Listen to the words of the " Imitation of 
Christ," and let them sink into your heart : " He who would 
keep the grace of God, let him be grateful for grace when 
it is given, and patient when it is taken away. Let him 
pray that it may be given back to him, and be careful and 
humble, lest he lose it." 

January 26.— ST. POLYCARP, Bishop, Martyr. 

T. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was a disciple of 
St. John. He wrote to the Philippians, exhorting 
them to mutual love and to hatred of heresy. When 
the apostate Marcion met St. Polycarp at Eome, he 
asked the aged Saint if he knew him. u Yes," St. Poly- 
carp answered, " I know you for the first-born of Satan." 
These were the words of a Saint most loving and most 
charitable, and specially noted for his compassion to sin- 
ners. He hated heresy, because he loved God and man so 
much. In 167, persecution broke out in Smyrna. When 
Polycarp heard that his pursuers were at the door, he said, 
M The will of God be done ; " and meeting them, he begged 
to be left alone for a little time, which he spent in prayer 
for " the Catholic Church throughout the world." He was 
brought to Smyrna early on Holy Saturday ; and, as he 
entered, a voice was heard from heaven, "Polycarp, be 
strong." When the proconsul besought him to curse Christ 
and go free, Polycarp answered, ' 1 Eighty-six years I have 
served Him, and He never did me wrong ; how can I 
blaspheme my King and Saviour ? " When he threatened 
him with fire, Polycarp told him this fire of his lasted but 
a little, while the fire prepared for the wicked lasted for- 
ever. At the stake he thanked God aloud for letting him 
drink of Christ's chalice. The fire was lighted, but it did 




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[JANUARY 27. 



him no hurt ; so he was stabbed to the heart, and his dead 
body was burnt. "Then," say the writers of his acts, 
' ' we took up the bones, more precious than the richest 
, jewels or gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, at 




which may God grant us to assemble with joy to celebrate 
the birthday of the martyr to his life in heaven ! " 

Reflection. — If we love Jesus Christ, we shall love the 
Church and hate heresy, which rends His mystical body, 
and destroys the souls for which He died. Like St . Poly- 
carp, we shall maintain our constancy in the faith by love 
of Jesus Christ, Who is its author and its finisher. 

January 27.— ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 

T. John was born at Antioch in 344. In order to 
break with a world which admired and courted 
him, he in 374 retired for six years to a neighboring 
mountain. Having thus acquired the art of Christian 
sileuoe, he returned to Antioch, and there labored as priest. 




JANUARY 2?.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



81 



until he was ordained Bishop of Constantinople in 398. 
The effect of his sermons was everywhere marvellous. He 
was very urgent that his people should frequent the holy 
sacrifice, and in order to remove all excuse he abbreviated 
the long Liturgy until then in use. St. Mlus relates that 
St. John Chrysostom was wont to see, when the priest 
began the holy sacrifice, " many of the blessed ones coming 
down from heaven in shining garments, and with bare feet, 
eyes intent, and bowed heads., in utter stillness and silence, 
assisting at the consummation of the tremendous mys- 
tery." Beloved as he was in Constantinople, his denuncia- 
tions of vice made him numerous enemies. In 403 these 
procured his banishment ; and although he was almost im- 
mediately recalled, it was not more than a reprieve. In 
404 he was banished to Cucusus in the deserts of Taurus. 




In 407 he was wearing out, but his enemies were impatient. 
They hurried him off to Pytius on the Euxine, a rough 
journey of nigh 400 miles. He was assiduously exposed to 
every hardship, cold, wet, and semi-starvation, but noth- 



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[JANUARY 28. 



ing could overcome his cheerfulness and his consideration 
for others. On the journey his sickness increased, and he 
was warned that his end was nigh. Thereupon, exchang- 
ing his travel-stained clothes for white garments, he re- 
ceived Viaticum, and with his customary words, " Glory 
be to God for all things. Amen," passed to Christ. 

Reflection. — We should try to understand that the most 
productive work in the whole day, both for time and 
eternity, is that involved in hearing Mass. St. John Chrys- 
ostom felt this so keenly that he allowed no consideration 
of venerable usage to interfere with the easiness of hearing 
Mass. 

January 28 ST. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. 

t. Cyril became Patriarch of Alexandria in 412. 
Having at first thrown himself with ardor into the 
party politics of the place, God called him to a nobler 
conflict. In 428, Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, 
began to deny the unity of Person in Christ, and to 
refuse to the Blessed Virgin the title of " Mother of God." 
He was strongly supported by disciples and friends 
throughout the East. As the assertion of the divine ma- 
ternity of Our Lady was necessary to the integrity of the 
doctrine of the Incarnation, so, with St. Cyril, devotion to 
the Mother was the necessary complement of his devotion 
to the Son. St. Cyril, after expostulating in vain, accused 
Nestorius to Pope Celestine. The Pope commanded re- 
traction, under pain of separation from the Church, and 
intrusted St. Cyril with the conduct of the proceedings. 
The appointed day, June 7, 431, found ISTestorius and 
Cyril at Ephesus, with over 200 bishops. After waiting 
twelve days in vain for the Syrian bishops, the council 
with Cyril tried ISTestorius, and deposed him from his see. 
Upon this the Syrians and Nestorians excommunicated St. 




January 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



88 



Cyril, and complained of him to the emperor as a peace- 
breaker. Imprisoned and threatened with banishment, 
the Saint rejoiced to confess Christ by suffering. In time 
it was recognized that St. Cyril was right, and with him the 




Church triumphed. Forgetting his wrongs, and careless 
of controversial punctilio, Cyril then reconciled himself 
with all who would consent to hold the doctrine of the In- 
carnation intact. He died in 444. 

Reflection. — The Incarnation is the mystery of God's 
dwelling within us, and therefore should be the dearest 
object of our contemplation. It was the passion of St. 
Cyril's life ; for it he underwent toil and persecution, and 
willingly sacrificed credit and friends. 

January 29 ST. FRANCIS OF SALES. 

rancis was born of noble and pious parents, near 
Annecy, a.d. 1566, and studied with brilliant suc- 
cess at Paris and Padua. On his return from Italy he 




84 LITTLE PICTOJUAL [JANUABY 29. 

gave up the grand career which his father had marked 
out for him in the service of the state, and became a priest. 
When the Duke of Savoy had resolved to restore the 
Church in the Chablais, Francis offered himself for the 
work, and set out on foot with his Bible and breviary and 
one companion, his cousin Louis of Sales. It was a work 
of toil, privation, and danger. Every door and every 
heart was closed against him. He was rejected with in- 
sult and threatened with death. But nothing could daunt 
or resist him, and ere long the Church burst forth into a 
second spring. It is stated that he converted 72,000 Cal- 
vinists. He was then compelled by the Pope to become 
Coadjutor Bishop of Geneva, and succeeded to the see 
a.d. 1602. At times the exceeding gentleness with which 




he received heretics and sinners almost scandalized his 
friends, and one of them said to him, " Francis of Sales 
will go to Paradise, of course ; but I am not so sure of the 
Bishop of Geneva : I am almost afraid his gentleness will 
play him a shrewd turn." "Ah," said the Saint, "I 
would rather account to God for too great gentleness than 



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LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



85 



for too great severity. Is not God all love ? God the 
Father is the Father of mercy ; God the Son is a Lamb ; 
God the Holy Ghost is a Dove — that is, gentleness itself. 
And are you wiser than God?" In union with St. Jane 
Frances of Chantal he founded at Annecy the Order of the 
Visitation, which soon spread over Europe. Though poor, 
he refused provisions and dignities, and even the great see 
of Paris. He died at Avignon, a.d. 1622. 

Reflection. — "You will catch more flies," St. Francis 
used to say, " with a spoonful of honey than with a hun- 
dred barrels of vinegar. Were there anything better or 
fairer on earth than gentleness, Jesus Christ would have 
taught it us ; and yet He has given us only two lessons to 
learn of Him — meekness and humility of heart." 

January 30.— ST. BATHILDES, Queen. 

T. Bathildes was an Englishwoman, who was carried 
over whilst yet young into France, and there sold 
for a slave, at a very low price, to Erkenwald, mayor 
of the palace under King Clovis II. When she grew up, 
her master was so much taken with her prudence and 
virtue that he placed her in charge of his household. The 
renown of her virtues spread through all France, and King 
Clovis II. took her for his royal consort. This unexpected 
elevation produced no alteration in a heart perfectly 
grounded in humility and the other virtues ; she seemed 
to become even more humble than before. Her new sta- 
tion furnished her the means of being truly a mother to 
the poor ; the king gave her the sanction of his royal 
authority for the protection of the Church, the care of the 
poor, and the furtherance of all religious undertakings. 
The death of her husband left her regent of the kingdom. 
She at once forbade the enslavement of Christians, did all 
in her power to promote piety, and filled France with hos- 
pitals and religious houses. As soon as her son Clotaire 




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[JANUARY 81. 



was of an age to govern, she withdrew from the world and 
entered the convent of Chelles. Here she seemed entirely 
to forget her worldly dignity, and was to be distinguished 
from the rest of the community only by her extreme 
humility, her obedience to her spiritual superiors, and her 
devotion to the sick, whom she comforted and served with 




wonderful charity. As she neared her end, God visited 
her with a severe illness, which she bore with Christian 
patience until, on the 30th of January, 680, she yielded up 
her soul in devout prayer. 

Reflection. — In all that we do, let God and His holy will 
be always before our eyes, and our only aim and desire be 
to please Him. 



January 31.— ST. MARCELLA, Widow. 

OjT. Marcella, whom St. Jerome called the glory of 
)^ the Koman women, became a widow in the seventh 
month after her marriage. Having determined to conse- 



JANUARY 31. J 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



8? 



crate the remainder of her days to the service of God, she 
rejected the hand of Cerealis, the consul, uncle of Gallus 
Caesar, and resolved to imitate the lives of the ascetics of 
the East. She abstained from wine and flesh-meat, em- 
ployed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting 
the churches, and never spoke with any man alone. Her 
example was followed by many who put themselves under 




her direction, and Eome was in a short time filled with 
monasteries. When the Goths under Alaric plundered 
Kome in 410, our Saint suffered severely at the hands of 
the barbarian, who cruelly scourged her in order to make 
her reveal the treasures which she had long before dis- 
tributed in charity. She trembled only, however, for the 
innocence of her dear spiritual daughter, Principia, and 
falling at the feet of the cruel soldiers, she begged with 
many tears that they would offer no insult to that pure 
virgin. God moved them to compassion, and they con- 
ducted our Saint and her pupil to the Church of St. Paul, 
to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary, with 



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[FEBRUARY 1. 



that of St. Peter. St. Marcella, who survived this but a 
short time, closed her eyes by a happy death, in the arms 
of St. Principia, about the end of August, 410. 

February 1. — ST. BRIDGID, Abbess, and Patroness of 
Ireland. 

ext to the glorious St. Patrick, St. Bridgid, whom 
we may consider his spiritual daughter in Christ, 
has ever been held in singular veneration in Ireland. She 
was born about the year 453, at Fochard in Ulster. Dur- 
ing her infancy, her pious father saw in a vision men 
clothed in white garments pouring a sacred unguent on 
her head, thus prefiguring her future sanctity. While yet 
very young, Bridgid consecrated her life to God, bestowed 
everything at her disposal on the poor, and was the edifi- 
cation of all who knew her. She was very beautiful, and 
fearing that efforts might be made to induce her to break 
the vow by which she had bound herself to God, and to be- 
stow her hand on one of her many suitors, she prayed that 
she might become ugly and deformed. Her prayer was 
heard, for her eye became swollen, and her whole coun- 
• tenance so changed that she was allowed to follow her 
vocation in peace, and marriage with her was no more 
thought of. When about twenty years old, our Saint 
made known to St. Mel, the nephew and disciple of St. 
Patrick, her intention to live only to Jesus Christ, and he 
consented to receive her sacred vows. On the appointed 
day the solemn ceremony of her profession was performed 
after the manner introduced by St. Patrick, the bishop 
offering up many prayers, and investing Bridgid with a 
snow-white habit, and a cloak of the same color. While 
she bowed her head on this occasion to receive the veil, a 
miracle of a singularly striking and impressive nature oc- 
curred : that part of the wooden platform adjoining the 
altar on which she knelt recovered its original vitality, and 




FEBIlUAKY l.j LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



69 



put on all its former verdure, retaining it for a long time 
after. At the same moment Bridgid's eye was healed, and 
she became as beautiful and as lovely as ever. 

Encouraged by her example, several other ladies made 
their vows with her, and in compliance with the wish of 
the parents of her new associates, the Saint agreed to 
found a religious residence for herself and them in the 
vicinity. A convenient site having been fixed upon by the 
bishop, a convent, the first in Ireland, was erected upon it ; 
and in obedience to the prelate Bridgid assumed the supe- 
riority. Her reputation for sanctity became greater every 




day ; and in proportion as it was diffused throughout the 
country the number of candidates for admission into the 
new monastery increased. The bishops of Ireland, soon 
perceiving the important advantages which their respective 
dioceses would derive from similar foundations, persuaded 
the young and saintly abbess to visit different parts of the 
kingdom, and, as an opportunity offered, introduced into 
each one the establishment of her institute. 

While thus engaged in a portion of the province of Con- 



Little pictorial 



[FEBRUARY 1. 



naught, a deputation arrived from Leinster to solicit the 
Saint to take up her residence in that territory ; but the 
motives which they urged were human, and such could 
have no weight with Bridgid. It was only the prospect of 
the many spiritual advantages that would result from com- 
pliance with the request that induced her to accede, as she 
did, to the wishes of those who had petitioned her. Taking 
with her a number of her spiritual daughters, our Saint 
journeyed to Leinster, where they were received with many 
demonstrations of respect and joy. The site on which 
Kildare now stands appearing to be well adapted for a re- 
ligious institute, there the Saint and her companions took 
up their abode. To the place appropriated for the new 
foundation some lands were annexed, the fruits of which 
were assigned to the little establishment. This donation 
indeed contributed to supply the wants of the community, 
but still the pious sisterhood principally depended for their 
maintenance on the liberality of their benefactors. Bridg- 
id contrived, however, out of their small means to relieve 
the poor of the vicinity very considerably ; and when the 
wants of these indigent persons surpassed her slender 
finances, she hesitated not to sacrifice for them the mova- 
bles of the convent. On one occasion our Saint, imitating 
the burning charity of St. Ambrose and other great ser- 
vants of God, sold some of the sacred vestments that she 
might procure the means of relieving their necessities. She 
was so humble that she sometimes attended the cattle on 
the land which belonged to her monastery. 

The renown of Bridgid's unbounded charity drew multi- 
tudes of the poor to Kildare ; the fame of her piety attracted 
thither many persons anxious to solicit her prayers or to 
profit by her holy example. In course of time the number 
of these so much increased that it became necessary to pro- 
vide accommodation for them in the neighborhood of the 
new monastery, and thus was laid the foundation and 
origin of the town of Kildare. 



FEBRUA11Y 1.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



91 



The spiritual exigencies of her community, and of those 
numerous strangers who resorted to the vicinity, having 
suggested to our Saint the expediency of having the locality 
erected into an episcopal see, she represented it to the prel- 
ates, to whom the consideration of it rightly belonged. 
Deeming the proposal just and useful, Conlath, a recluse of 
eminent sanctity, illustrious by the great things which God 
had granted to his prayers, was, at Bridgid's desire, chosen 
the first bishop of the newly erected diocese. In process 
of time it became the ecclesiastical metropolis of the prov- 
ince to which it belonged, probably in consequence of the 
general desire to honor the place in which St. Bridgid had 
so long dwelt. 

After seventy years devoted to the practice of the most 
sublime virtues, corporal infirmities admonished our Saint 
that the time of her dissolution was nigh. It was now half 
a century since, by her holy vows, she had irrevocably con- 
secrated herself to God, and during that period great 
results had been attained ; her holy institute having widely 
diffused itself throughout the Green Isle, and greatly ad- 
vanced the cause of religion in the various districts in 
which it was established. Like a river of peace, its prog- 
ress was steady and silent ; it fertilized every region 
fortunate enough to receive its waters, and caused it to 
put forth spiritual flowers and fruits with all the sweet 
perfume of evangelical fragrance. The remembrance of 
the glory she had procured to the Most High, as w T ell as 
the services rendered to dear souls ransomed by the pre- 
cious blood of her divine Spouse, cheered and consoled 
Bridgid in the infirmities inseparable from old age. Her 
last illness was soothed by the presence of Nennidh, a 
priest of eminent sanctity, over whose youth she had 
watched with pious solicitude, and who was indebted to 
her prayers and instructions for his great proficiency in 
sublime perfection. The day on which our abbess was to 
terminate her course, February 1, 523, having arrived, 



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[FEBRUARY 1. 



she received from the hands of this saintly priest the 
blessed body and blood of her Lord in the divine Eucharist, 
and, as it would seem, immediately after her spirit passed 
forth, and went to possess Him in that heavenly country 
where He is seen face to face and enjoyed without danger 
of ever losing Him. Her body was interred in the church 
adjoining her convent, but was some time after exhumed, 
and deposited in a splendid shrine near the high altar. 

In the ninth century, the country being desolated by the 
Danes, the remains of St. Bridgid were removed in order 
to secure them from irreverence ; and, being transferred to 
Down-Patrick, were deposited in the same grave with those 
of the glorious St. Patrick. Their bodies, together with 
that of St. Columba, were translated afterwards to the 
cathedral of the same city, but their monument was* de- 
stroyed in the reign of King Henry VIII. The head of St. 
Bridgid is now kept in the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon. 

Reflection. — Outward resemblance to Our Lady was St. 
Bridgid's peculiar privilege ; but all are bound to grow like 
her in interior purity of heart. This grace St. Bridgid has 
obtained in a wonderful degree for the daughters of her 
native land, and will never fail to procure for all her 
devout clients. 

ST. IGNATIUS, Bishop, Martyr. 

t. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was the disciple of 
St. John. When Domitian persecuted the Church, 
St. Ignatius obtained peace for his own flock by fasting 
and prayer. But for his part he desired to suffer with 
Christ, and to prove himself a perfect disciple. In the 
year 107, Trajan came to Antioch, and forced the Chris- 
tians to choose between apostasy and death. "Who art 
thou, poor devil," the emperor said, when Ignatius was 
"brought before him, " who settest our commands at 




FEBRUARY 1.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



93 



naught?" "Call not him 'poor devil,' " Ignatius an- 
swered, "who bears God within him." And when the 
emperor questioned him about his meaning, Ignatius ex- 
plained that he bore in his heart Christ crucified for his 
sake. Thereupon the emperor condemned him to be torn 
to pieces by wild beasts at Rome. St. Ignatius thanked 
God, Who had so honored him, "binding him in the chains 
of Paul, His apostle." 




He journeyed to Rome, guarded by soldiers, and with no 
fear except of losing the martyr's crown. He was de- 
voured by lions in the Roman amphitheatre. The wild 
beasts left nothing of his body, except a few bones, which 
were reverently treasured at Antioch, until their removal 
to the Church of St. Clement at Rome, in 637. After the 
martyr's death, several Christians saw him in vision stand- 
ing before Christ, and interceding for them. 

Reflection. — Ask St. Ignatius to obtain for you the grace 
of profiting by all you have to suffer, and rejoicing in it 
as a means of likeness to your crucified Redeemer. 



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[FEBRUARY 2. 



February 2 — THE PURIFICATION, COMMONLY 
CALLED CANDLEMAS-DAY. 

he law of God, given by Moses to the Jews, ordained 
that a woman, after childbirth, should continue for 
a certain time in a state which that law calls unclean, during 
which she was not to appear in public, nor presume to 
touch anything consecrated to God. This term was of 
forty days upon the birth of a son, and double that time 
for a daughter. On the expiration of the term, the mother 
was to bring to the door of the tabernacle, or Temple, a 
lamb and a young pigeon, or turtle-dove, as an offering to 
God. These being sacrificed to Almighty God by the 
priest, the woman was cleansed of the legal impurity and 
reinstated in her former privileges. 

A young pigeon, or turtle-dove, by way of a sin-offer- 
ing, was required of all, whether rich or poor ; but as the 
expense of a lamb might be too great for persons in poor 
circumstances, they were allowed to substitute for it a 
second dove. 

Our Saviour having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, 
and His blessed Mother remaining always a spotless virgin, 
it is evident that she did not come under the law ; but as 
the world was, as yet, ignorant of her miraculous concep- 
tion, she submitted with great punctuality and exactness 
to every humbling circumstance which the law required. 
Devotion and zeal to honor God, by every observance pre- 
scribed by His law, prompted Mary to perform this act of 
religion, though evidently exempt from the precept. Being 
poor herself, she made the offering appointed for the poor ; 
but, however mean in itself, it was made with a perfect 
heart, which is what God chiefly regards in all that is 
offered to Him. Besides the law which obliged the mother 
to purify herself, there was another which ordered that the 
first-born son should be offered to God, and that, after its 
presentation, the child should be ransomed with a certain 



FEBRUARY 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



95 



sum of money, and peculiar sacrifices offered on the occa- 
sion. 

Mary complies exactly with all these ordinances. She 
obeys not only in the essential points of the law, but has 
strict regard to all the circumstances. She remains forty 
days at home ; she denies herself, all this time, the liberty 
of entering the Temple ; she partakes not of things sacred ; 
and on the day of her purification she walks several miles 
to Jerusalem, with the world's Redeemer in her arms. She 




waits for the priest at the gate of the Temple, makes her 
offerings of thanksgiving and expiation, presents her divine 
Son by the hands of the priest to His Eternal Father, with 
the most profound humility, adoration, and thanksgiving. 
She then redeems Him with five shekels, as the law ap- 
points, and receives Him back again as a sacred charge 
committed to her special care, till the Father shall again 
demand Him for the full accomplishment of man's redemp- 
tion . 

The ceremony of this day was closed by a third mystery — 
the meeting in the Temple of the holy persons Simeon an<J 



96 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 3. 



Anne with Jesus and His parents. Holy Simeon, on that 
occasion, received into his arms the object of all his desires 
and sighs, and praised God for being blessed with the hap- 
piness of beholding the so-much-longed-for Messias. He 
foretold to Mary her martyrdom of sorrow, and that Jesus 
brought redemption to those who would accept of it on the 
terms it was offered them ; but a heavy judgment on all 
infidels who should obstinately reject it, and on Christians, 
also, whose lives were a contradiction to His holy» maxims 
and example. Mary, hearing this terrible prediction, did 
not answer one word, felt no agitation of mind from the 
present, no dread for the future ; but courageously and 
sweetly committed all to God's holy will. Anne, also, the 
prophetess, who in her widowhood served God with great 
fervor, had the happiness to acknowledge and adore in this 
great mystery the Kedeemer of the world. Simeon, having 
beheld Our Saviour, exclaimed : ' ' Now dismiss Thy ser- 
vant, O Lord, according to Thy word, because my eyes 
have seen Thy salvation." 

This feast is called Candlemas, because the Church 
blesses the candles to be borne in the procession of the day. 

Reflection. — Let us strive to imitate the humility of the 
ever-blessed Mother of God, remembering that humility is 
the path which leads to abiding peace and brings us near 
to the consolations of God. 

February 3.— ST. BLASE, Bishop and Martyr. 

t. Blase devoted the earlier years of his life to the 
study of philosophy, and afterwards became a physi- 
cian. In the practice of his profession he saw so much of 
the miseries of life and the hollowness of worldly pleasures, 
that he resolved to spend the rest of his days in the service 
of God, and from being a healer of bodily ailments to be- 
come a physician of souls. The Bishop of Sebaste, in Ar- 
menia, having died, our Saint, much to the gratification of 




FEBRUARY 3.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



97 



the inhabitants of that city, was appointed to succeed him. 
St. Blase at once began to instruct his people as much by 
his example as by his words, and the great virtues and 
sanctity of this servant of God were attested by many mira- 
cles. From all parts the people came flocking to him for 
the cure of bodily and spiritual ills. Agricolaus, Governor 
of Gappadocia and the Lesser Armenia, having begun a 
persecution by order of the Emperor Licinius, our Saint 
was seized and hurried off to prison. While on his way 




there, a distracted mother, whose only child was dying of a 
throat disease, threw herself at the feet of St. Blase and 
implored his intercession. Touched at her grief, the Saint 
offered up his prayers, and the child was cured ; and since 
that time his aid has often been effectually solicited in 
cases of a similar disease. Refusing to worship the false 
gods of the heathens, St. Blase was first scourged ; his body 
was then torn with hooks, and finally he was beheaded in 
the year 316. 

Reflection. — There is no sacrifice which, by the aid of 



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[FEBRUARY 4. 



grace, human nature is not capable of accomplishing. 
When St. Paul complained to God of the violence of the 
temptation, God answered, " My grace is sufficient for thee, 
for power is made perfect in infirmity." 

February 4.— St. JANE OF VALOIS. 

Born of the blood royal of France, herself a queen, 
Jane of Valois led a life remarkable for its humilia- 
tions even in the annals of the Saints. Her father, Louis 

XI. , who had hoped for a son to succeed him, banished 
Jane from his palace, and, it is said, even attempted her 
life. At the age of five the neglected child offered her 
w T hole heart to God, and yearned to do some special service 
in honor of His blessed Mother. At the king's wish, 
though against her own inclination, she was married to the 
Duke of Orleans. Towards an indifferent and unworthy 
husband her conduct was ever most patient and dutiful. 
Her prayers and tears saved him from a traitor's death and 
shortened the captivity which his rebellion had merited. 
Still nothing could win a heart which was already given to 
another. When her husband ascended the throne as Louis 

XII. , his first act was to repudiate by false representations 
one who through twenty-two years of cruel neglect had 
been his true and loyal wife. At the final sentence of 
separation, the saintly queen exclaimed, "God be praised 
Who has allowed this, that I may serve Him better than I 
have heretofore done." Retiring to Bourges, she there 
realized her long-formed desire of founding the Order of 
the Annunciation, in honor of the Mother of God. 

Under the guidance of St. Francis of Paula, the director 
of her childhood, St. Jane was enabled to overcome the 
serious obstacles which even good people raised against the 
foundation of her new Order. In 1501 the rule of the An- 
nunciation was finally approved by Alexander VI. The 
chief aim of the institute was to imitate the ten virtues 



FEBRUARY 5.J LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



practised by Our Lady in the mystery of the Incarnation, 
the superioress being called "Aneelle," handmaid, in 
honor of Mary's humility. St. Jane built and endowed the 




first convent of the Order in 1502. She died in heroic sanc- 
tity, a.d. 1505, and was buried in the royal crowm and 
purple, beneath which lay the habit of her Order. 



Reflection. — During the lifetime of St. Jane, the Angelus 
was established in France. The sound of the Ave thrice 
each day gave her hope in her sorrow, and fostered in her 
the desire still further to honor the Incarnation. How 
often might w T e derive grace from the same beautiful devo- 
tion, -so enriched by the Church, yet neglected by so many 
Christians ! 

February 5.— ST. AGATHA, Virgin, Martyr. 

^Tt. Agatha was born in Sicily, of rich and noble parents 
— a child of benediction from the first, for she was 
promised to her parents before her birth, and consecrated 



100 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [FEBRUARY 5. 



from her earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers 
and temptations she served Christ in purity of body and 
soul, and she died for the love of chastity. Quintanus, 
who governed Sicily under the Emperor Decius, had heard 
the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and he made the laws 
against the Christians a pretext for summoning her from 
Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. ' ' O Jesus 
Christ ! " she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, 
" all that I am is Thine ; preserve me against the tyrant." 

And Our Lord did indeed preserve one who had given 
herself so utterly to Him. He kept her pure and undefiled 
while she was imprisoned for a whole month under charge 
of an evil woman. He gave her strength to reply to the 
offer of her life and safety, if she would but consent to sin, 
" Christ alone is my life and my salvation." When Quin- 
tanus turned from passion to cruelty, and cut off her 
breasts, Our Lord sent the Prince of His apostles to heal 
her. And when, after she had been rolled naked upon 
potsherds, she asked that her torments might be ended, her 
Spouse heard her prayer and took her to Himself. 

St. Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ ; 
she followed Him in virginal purity, and then looked to 
Him for protection. And down to this day -Christ has 
shown His tender regard for the very body of St. Agatha. 
Again and again, during the eruptions of Mount Etna, the 
people of Catania have exposed her veil for public venera- 
tion, and found safety by this means ; and in modern 
times, on opening the tomb in which her body lies waiting 
for the resurrection, they beheld the skin still entire, and 
felt the sweet fragrance which issued from this temple of 
the Holy Ghost. 

Reflection. — Purity is a gift of God : we can gain it and 
preserve it only by care and diligence in avoiding all that 
may prove an incentive to sin. 



FEBRUARY 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



101 



THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN. 

v T"|^bout forty years after St. Francis Xavier's death a 
cJr-*-* persecution broke out in Japan, and all Christian 
rites were forbidden under pain of death. A confraternity 
of martyrs was at once formed, the object of which was to 
die for Christ. Even the little children joined it. Peter, 
a Christian child six years old, was awakened early and 
told that he was to be beheaded, together with his father. 
Strong in grace, he expressed his joy at the news, dressed 




himself in his gayest clothing, and took the hand of the 
soldier who was to lead him to death. The headless trunk 
of his father first met his view ; calmly kneeling down, he 
prayed beside the corpse, and, loosening his collar, pre- 
pared his neck for the stroke. Moved by this touching 
scene, the executioner threw down his sabre and fled. 
None but a brutal slave could be found for the murderous 
task ; with unskilled and trembling hand he hacked the 
child to pieces, who at last died without uttering a single 
cry. Christians were branded with the cross, or all but 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBKtJARY 8. 



buried alive, while the head and arms were slowly sawn off 
with blunt weapons. The least shudder under their an- 
guish was interpreted into apostasy. The obstinate were 
put to the most cruel deaths, but the survivors only envied 
them. Five noblemen were escorted to the stake by 40,000 
Christians with flowers and lights, singing the litanies of 
Our Lady as they went. In the great martyrdom, at which 
thousands also assisted, the martyrs sent up a flood of 
melody from the fire, which only died away as one after 
another went to sing the new song in heaven. Later on, a 
more awful doom was invented. The victims were lowered 
into a sulphurous chasm, called the u mouth of hell," near 
which no bird or beast could live. The chief of these, Paul 
Wiborg, whose family had been already massacred for the 
faith, was thrice let down ; thrice he cried, with a loud 
voice, 6 4 Eternal praise be to the ever- adorable Sacrament 
of the Altar." The third time he went to his reward. 

Reflection. — If mere children face torture and death 
with joy for Christ, can we begrudge the slight penance He 
asks us to bear ? 

February 6 ST. DOROTHY, Virgin, Martyr. 

t. Dorothy was a young virgin, celebrated at Csesarea, 
where she lived, for her angelic virtue. Her parents 
seem to have been martyred before her in the Diocletian 
persecution, and when the Governor Sapricius came to 
Ca3sarea he called her before him, and sent this child of 
martyrs to the home where they were waiting for her. 

She was stretched upon the rack, and offered marriage if 
she would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. 
But she replied that " Christ was her only Spouse, and 
death her desire. " She was then placed in charge of two 
women who had fallen away from the faith, in the hope 
that they might pervert her ; but the fire of her own heart 
rekindled the flame in theirs, and led them back to Christ. 




FEBRUARY 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



When she was set once more on the rack, Sapricius himself 
was amazed at the heavenly look she wore, and asked her 
the cause of her joy. "Because," she said, " I have 
brought back two souls to Christ, and because I shall soon 
be in heaven rejoicing with the angels." Her joy grew as 
she was buffeted in the face and her sides burned with 
plates of red-hot iron. "Blessed be Thou," she cried, 
when she was sentenced to be beheaded, — "blessed be 




Thou, 0 Thou Lover of souls ! Who dost call me to Para- 
dise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber." 

St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said 
that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, 
who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Chris- 
tians, asked her, in mockery, to send him " apples or roses 
from the garden of her Spouse." The Saint promised to 
grant his request, and, just before she died, a little child 
stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses. 
She bade him take them to Theophilus and tell him this 
was the present which he sought from the garden of her 
Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven, and Theophilus 



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[FEBRUARY 7. 



was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint 
when the child entered his room. He saw that the child 
was an angel in disguise, and the fruit and flowers of no 
earthly growth. He was converted to the faith, and then 
shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy. 

Reflection. — Do you wish, to be safe in the pleasures and 
happy in the troubles of the world ? Pray for heavenly de- 
sires, and say, with St. Philip, ' ' Paradise, Paradise ! " 

February 7 ST. ROMUALD, Abbot. 

IN 976, Sergius, a nobleman of Kavenna, quarrelled with 
a relative about an estate, and slew him in a duel. 
His son Eomuald, horrified at his father's crime, entered 
the Benedictine monastery at Classe, to do a forty days' 
penance for him. This penance ended in his own vocation 
to religion. After three years at Classe, Eomuald went to 
live as a hermit near Venice, where he was joined by Peter 
Urseolus, Duke of Venice, and together they led a most 
austere life in the midst of assaults from the evil spirits. 
St. Eomuald founded many monasteries, the chief of which 
was that at Camaldoli, a wild desert place, where he built a 
church, which he surrounded with a number of separate 
cells for the solitaries who lived under his rule. His disci- 
ples were hence called Cfimaldolese. He is said to have 
seen here a vision of a mystic ladder, and his white-clothed 
monks ascending by it to heaven. Among his first disciples 
were Sts. Adalbert and Boniface, apostles of Eussia, and Sts. 
John and Benedict of Poland, martyrs for the faith. He 
was an intimate friend of the Emperor St. Henry, and was 
reverenced and consulted by many great men of his time. 
He once passed seven years in solitude and complete silence. 

In his youth St. Eomuald was much troubled by temp- 
tations of the flesh. To escape them he had recourse to 
hunting, and in the woods first conceived his love for 
solitude. His father's sin, as we have seen, first prompted 



FEBRUARY 7.] 



LIVES OF 1 THE SAINTS. 



105 



him to undertake a forty days' penance in the monastery, 
which he forthwith made his home. Some bad example 
of his fellow-monks induced him to leave them and adopt 
the solitary mode of life. The penance of Urseolus, who 
had obtained his power wrongfully, brought him his first 
disciple ; the temptations of the devil compelled him to his 
severe life ; and finally the persecutions of others were the 
occasion of his settlement at Camaldoli, and the foundation 




of his Order. He died, as he had foretold twenty years 
before, alone, in his monastery of Yal Castro, on the 19th 
of June, 1027. 

Reflection. — St. Eomuald's life teaches us that, if we only 
follow the impulses of the Holy Spirit, we shall easily find 
good everywhere, even on the most unlikely occasions. 
Our own sins, the sins of others, their ill will against us, or 
our own mistakes and misfortunes, are equally capable of 
leading us, with softened hearts, to the feet of God's mercy 
and love. 



106 



LITTLE} PICTOKIAL [FEBRUARY & 



February 8.— ST. JOHN OF MATHA. 

*p£r*HE life of St. John of Matha was one long course of 
self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of 
his neighbor. As a child, his chief delight was serving the 
poor ; and he often told them he had come into the world 
for no other end but to wash their feet. He studied at 
Paris with such distinction that his professors advised him 
to become a priest, in order that his talents might render 
greater service to others ; and, for this end, John gladly 
sacrificed his high rank and other worldly advantages. At 
his first Mass an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red 
and blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposing on the 
heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive. To ascertain 
what this signified, John repaired to St. Felix of Yalois, a 
holy hermit living near Meaux, under w r hose direction he led 
a life of extreme penance. The angel again appeared, and 
they then set out for Kome, to learn the will of God from 
the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who told them to devote 
themselves to the redemption of captives. For this purpose 
they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. The religious 
fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout Europe 
took them to Barbary, to redeem the Christian slaves. 
They devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in 
all countries. The charity of St. John in devoting his life 
to the redemption of captives was visibly blessed by God. 
On his second return from Tunis he brought back one hun- 
dred and twenty liberated slaves. But the Moors attacked 
him at sea, overpowered his vessel, and doomed it to de- 
struction, with all on board, by taking aw r ay the rudder 
and sails, and leaving it to the mercy of the wdnds. St. 
John tied his cloak to the mast, and prayed, saying, " Let 
God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. 0 Lord, 
Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes 
of the proud." Suddenly the wind filled the small sail, 
and, without guidance, carried the ship safely in a few 



FEBRUARY 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



107 



days to Ostia, the port of Rome, three hundred leagues 
from Tunis. Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 
1213, at the age of fifty-three. 




Reflection. — Let us never forget that our blessed Lord 
bade us love our neighbor not only as ourselves, but as He 
loved us, Who afterwards sacrificed Himself for us. 



February 9.— ST. APOLLONIA AND THE MARTYRS OF 
ALEXANDRIA. 

t Alexandria, in 249, the mob rose in savage fury 
against the Christians. Metras, an old man, per- 
ished first. His eyes were pierced with reeds, and he was 
stoned to death. A woman named Quinta was the next 
victim. She was led to a heathen temple and bidden 
worship. She replied by cursing the false god again 
and again, and she too was stoned to death. After this 
the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered. 
They took the spoiling of their goods with all joy. 

St. Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous 




108 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [FEBRUARY 9. 



among the martyrs. Her teeth were beaten out ; she was 
led outside the city, a huge fire was kindled, and she was 
told she must deny Christ, or else be burned alive. She 
was silent for awhile, and then, moved by a special in- 
spiration of the Holy Ghost, she leaped into the fire and died 
in its flames. The same courage showed itself the next 
year, when Decius became emperor, and the persecution 
grew till it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. The 




story of Dioscorus illustrates the courage of the Alexan- 
drian Christians, and the esteem they had for martyrdom. 
He was a boy of fifteen. To the arguments of the judge he 
returned wise answers : he was proof against torture. His 
older companions were executed, but Dioscorus was spared 
on account of his tender years ; yet the Christians could 
not bear to think that he had been deprived of the martyr's 
crown, except to receive it afterwards more gloriously. 
"Dioscorus," writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria at 
this time, " remains with us, reserved for some longer and 
greater combat." There were indeed many Christians who 



FEBRUARY 10.] LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



109 



came, pale and trembling, to offer the heathen sacrifices. 
But the judges themselves were struck with horror at the 
multitudes who rushed to martyrdom. Women triumphed 
over torture, till at last the judges were glad to execute 
them at once and put an end to the ignominy of their own 
defeat. 

Reflection. — Many saints, who were not martyrs, have 
longed to shed their blood for Christ. We, too, may pray 
for some portion of their spirit ; and the least suffering for 
the faith, borne with humility and courage, is the proof 
that Christ has heard our prayer. 

February 10.— ST. SCHOLASTICA, Abbess. 

r\F this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she 
was the sister of the great patriarch St. Benedict, 
and that, under his direction, she founded and governed a 
numerous community near Monte Casino. St. Gregory 
sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to 
God from her childhood, and that her pure soul went to 
God in the likeness of a dove, as if to show that her life 
had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the Holy Spirit. 
Her brother was accustomed to visit her every year, for 
"she could not be sated or wearied with the words of grace 
which flowed from his lips." On his last visit, after a day 
passed in spiritual converse, the Saint, knowing that her 
end was near, said, " My brother, leave me not, I pray you, 
this night, but discourse with me till dawn on the bliss of 
those who see God in heaven." St. Benedict would not 
break his rule at the bidding of natural affection ; and then 
the Saint bowed her head on her hands and prayed ; and 
there arose a storm so violent that St. Benedict could not 
return to his monastery, and they passed the night in 
heavenly conversation. Three days later St. Benedict saw 
in a vision the soul of his sister going up in the likeness of 
a dove into heaven. Then he gave thanks to God for the 



110 



LITTLE PICTOIUAL 



[FEBRUARY 10. 



graces He had given her, and for the glory which had 
crowned them. When she died, St. Benedict, her spiritual 
daughters, and the monks sent by St. Benedict mingled 
their tears and prayed, ' ' Alas ! alas ! dearest mother, to 
whom dost thou leave us now ? Pray for us to Jesus, to 
Whom thou art gone." They then devoutly celebrated 
holy Mass, " commending her soul to God ; " and her body 
was borne to Monte Casino, and laid by her brother in the 
tomb he had prepared for himself. ' 4 And they bewailed 
her many days and St. Benedict said, "Weep not, sis- 
ters and brothers ; for assuredly Jesus has taken her 




before us to be our aid and defence against all our enemies, 
that we may stand in the evil day and be in all things per- 
fect. " She died about the year 543. 

Reflection. — Our relatives must be loved in and for God ; 
otherwise the purest affection becomes inordinate and is 
so much taken from Him. 



FEBRUARY 11.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



Ill 




February 11 ST. SEVERINUS, Abbot of Agaunum. 

C^f t. Severinus, of a noble family in Burgundy, was edu- 
cated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian 
heresy reigned in that country. He forsook the world in 
his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the monastery 
of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, 
till the Catholic King Sigismund built there the great abbey 
of St. Maurice. St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that 
place, and had governed his community many years in the 
exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the 
first Christian king of France, lying ill of a fever, which 
his physicians had for two years ineffectually endeavored 
to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct the Saint to 
court ; for it was said that the sick from all parts recov- 
ered their health by his prayers. St. Severinus took leave 
of his monks, telling them he should never see them more 
in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius, Bishop 
of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb ; also 
a leper, at the gates of Paris ; and coming to the palace he 



112 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [FEBRUARY 1%. 



immediately restored the king to perfect health, by putting 
on him his own cloak. The king, in gratitude, distributed 
large alms to the poor and released all his prisoners. St. 
Severinus, returning toward Agaunum, stopped at Chateau- 
Landon in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a 
solitary chapel, among whom he was admitted, at his re- 
quest, as a stranger, and was soon greatly admired by them 
for his sanctity. He foresaw his death, which happened 
shortly after, in 507. The place is now an abbey of re- 
formed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scat- 
tered the greater part of his relics when they plundered 
this church. 

Reflection. — God loads with His favor those who delight 
in exercising mercy. ' ' According to thy ability be merci- 
ful : if thou hast much, give abundantly ; if thou hast 
little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little." 

February 12 ST. BENEDICT OF ANIAN, 

Benedict was the son of Aigulf , Governor of Languedoc, 
and was born about 750. In his early youth he 
served as cup-bearer to King Pepin and his son Charle- 
magne, enjoying under them great honors and possessions. 
Grace entered his soul at the age of twenty, and he resolved 
to seek the kingdom of God with his whole heart. Without 
relinquishing his place at court, he lived there a most 
mortified life for three years ; then a narrow escape from 
drowning made him vow to quit the world, and he entered 
the cloister of St. Seine. In reward for his heroic austeri- 
ties in the monastic state, God bestowed upon him the gift 
of tears, and inspired him with a knowledge of spiritual 
things. As procurator, he was most careful of the wants 
of the brethren, and most hospitable to the poor and to 
guests. Declining to accept the abbacy, he built himself a 
little hermitage on the brook Anian, and lived some years 
in great solitude and poverty ; but the fame of his sanctity 



FEBRUARY 12.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



113 



drawing many souls around him, he was obliged to build a 
large abbey, and within a short time governed three hun- 
dred monks. He became the great restorer of monastic 
discipline throughout France and Germany. First, he 
drew up with immense labor a code of the rules of St. 
Benedict, his great namesake, which he collated with those 
of the chief monastic founders, showing the uniformity of 
the exercises in each, and enforced by his " Penitential " 




their exact observance ; secondly, he minutely regulated all 
matters regarding food, clothing, and every detail of life ; 
and thirdly, by prescribing the same for all, he excluded 
jealousies and insured perfect charity. In a Provincial 
Council held in 813, under Charlemagne, at which he was 
present, it was declared that all monks of the West should 
adopt the rule of St. Benedict. He died February 11, 821. 

Reflection. — The decay of monastic discipline and its 
restoration by St. Benedict prove that none are safe from 
loss of fervor, but that all can regain it by fidelity to grace. 



114 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 13. 



February 13.— ST. CATHERINE OF RICCI. 

K j i'lexandrina of Kicci was the daughter of a noble 
cJ<-*-k Florentine. At the age of thirteen she entered the 
Third Order of St. Dominic in the monastery of Prato, 
taking in religion the name of Catherine, after her patron 
and namesake of Siena. Her special attraction was to the 
Passion of Christ, in which she was permitted miraculously 
to participate. In the Lent of 1541, being then twenty-one 
years of age, she had a vision of the crucifixion so heart- 
rending that she was confined to bed for three weeks, and 
was only restored, on Holy Saturday, by an apparition of 
St. Mary Magdalene and Jesus risen. During twelve years 
she passed every Friday in ecstasy. She received the sacred 
stigmata, the wound in the left side, and the crown of 
thorns. All these favors gave her continual and intense 
suffering, and inspired her with a loving sympathy for the 
yet more bitter tortures of the Holy Souls. In their behalf 
she offered all her prayers and penances ; and her charity 
toward them became so famous throughout Tuscany that 
after every death the friends of the deceased hastened to 
Catherine to secure her prayers. St. Catherine offered 
many prayers, fasts, and penances for a certain great man, 
and thus obtained his salvation. It was revealed to her 
that he was in purgatory ; and such was her love of Jesus 
crucified that she offered to suffer all the pains about to be 
inflicted on that soul. Her prayer was granted. The soul 
entered heaven, and for forty days Catherine suffered in- 
describable agonies. Her body was covered with blisters, 
emitting heat so great that her cell seemed on fire. Her 
flesh appeared as if roasted, and her tongue like red-hot 
iron. Amid all she was calm and joyful, saying, "I long 
to suffer all imaginable pains, that souls may quickly see 
and praise their Eedeemer." She knew by revelation the 
arrival of a soul in purgatory, and the hour of its release. 
She held intercourse with the Saints in glory, and fre- 



FEBKUABY 14.] LIVES OE THE SAINTS. 



115 



quently conversed with St. Philip ISTeri at Rome without 
ever leaving her convent at Prato. She died, amid angels' 
songs, in 1589. 




Reflection. — If we truly love Jesus crucified, we must 
long, like St. Catherine, to release the Holy Souls whom He 
has redeemed but has left to our charity to set free. 



February 14. — ST. VALENTINE, Priest and Martyr. 

Valentine was a holy priest in Kome, who, with St. 
Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the 
persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and 
sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on find- 
ing all his promises to make him renounce his faith in- 
effectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and 
afterward to be beheaded, which was executed on the 14th 
of February, about the year 270. Pope Julius I. is said to 
have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, which 
for a long time gave name to the gate now called Porta 
del Popolo, formerly Porta Yalentini. The greater part 



116 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 15. 



of his relics are now in the Church of St. Praxedes. To 
abolish the heathens' lewd superstitious custom of boys 
drawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess Feb- 




ruata Juno, on the 15th of this month, several zealous 
pastors substituted the names of Saints in billets given on 
this day. 

Reflection. — In the cause of justice and truth, prudence 
should not be held in account ; otherwise prudence is mere 
human respect. St. Paul says : " The wisdom of the flesh 
is death." 

February 15 STS. FAUSTINUS and JOVITA, Martyrs. 

Haustinus and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and 
zealous professors of the Christian religion, which 
they preached without fear in their city of Brescia, while 
the bishop of that place lay concealed during the persecu- 
tion. Their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the 
heathens against them, and procured them a glorious death 
for their faith at Brescia in Lombardy, under the Em- 



FEBRUARY 15. J 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



117 



peror Adrian, Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them ; 
and the emperor himself, passing through Brescia, when 
neither threats nor torments could shake their constancy, 
commanded them to be beheaded. They seem to have 
suffered about the year 121. The city of Brescia honors 
them as its chief patrons, possesses their relics, and a very 
ancient church in that city bears their names. 

Reflection. — The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom 
— at least of mortification and penance. It is always the 
spirit of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life 
of Christ, the greater share we inherit in His spirit, and in 
the fruit of His death. To souls mortified to their senses 
and disengaged from earthly things, God gives frequent 




foretastes of the sweetness of eternal life, and the most 
ardent desires of possessing Him in His glory. This is the 
spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy 
resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come. 



118 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [FEBRUARY 16. 



February 16 BLESSED JOHN DE BRITTO, Martyr. 

^|^\on Pedro- II. of Portugal, when a child, had among 
r*— " his little pages a modest boy of rich and princely 
parents. Much had John de Britto — for so was he called — 
to bear from his careless-living companions, to whom his 
holy life was a reproach. A terrible illness made him turn 
for aid to St. Francis Xavier, a Saint so well loved by the 
Portuguese ; and when, in answer to his prayers, he re- 
covered, his mother vested him for a year in the dress 
worn in those days by the Jesuit Fathers. From that time 
John's heart burned to follow the example of the Apostle 
of the Indies. He gained his wish. On December 17, 
1662, he entered the novitiate of the Society at Lisbon ; 
and eleven years later, in spite of the most determined 
opposition of his family and of the court, he left all to go 
to convert the Hindus of Madura. When Blessed John's 
mother knew that her son was going to the Indies, 
she used all her influence to prevent him leaving his own 
country, and persuaded the Papal Nuncio to interfere. 
' ' God, Who called me from the world into religious life, 
now calls me from Portugal to India," was the reply of the 
future martyr. ' c Not to answer the vocation as I ought, 
would be to provoke the justice of God. As long as I live, 
I shall never cease striving to gain a passage to India." 
For fourteen years he toiled, preaching, converting, bap- 
tizing multitudes, at the cost of privations, hardships, and 
persecutions. At last, after being seized, tortured, and 
nearly massacred by the heathens, he was banished from 
the country. Forced to return to Portugal, John once more 
broke through every obstacle, and went back again to his 
labor of love. Like St. John the Baptist, he died a victim 
to the anger of a guilty woman, whom a convert king had 
put aside, and, like the Precursor, he was beheaded after a 
painful imprisonment. 



FEBKUARY 16.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



119 



Reflection. — " It is a great honor, a great glory to serve 
God, and to contemn all things for God. They will have 
a great grace who freely subject themselves to God's most 
holy will." — The Imitation of Christ. 

ST. ONESIMUS, Disciple of St. Paul. 

e was a Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon, a 
person of note of the city of Colossae, converted to 
the faith by St. Paul. Having robbed his master and 
being obliged to fly, he providentially met with St. Paul, 




then a prisoner for the faith at Kome, who there converted 
and baptized him, and sent him with his canonical letter 
of recommendation to Philemon, by whom he was par- 
doned, set at liberty, and sent back to his spiritual father, 
whom he afterwards faithfully served. That apostle made 
him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, and afterwards, as St. Jerome and other Fathers 
witness, a preacher of the Gospel and a bishop. He was 
crowned with martyrdom under Domitian in the year 95. 




120 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [FEBRUARY 17. 



Reflection. — With what excess of goodness does God 
communicate Himself to souls that open themselves to 
Him ! With what caresses does He often visit them ! With 
what a profusion of graces does He enrich and strengthen 
them ! In our trials and temptations let us then offer our 
hearts to God, remembering, as St. Paul says, " To them 
that love God all things work together unto good." 

February 17. — ST. FLAVIAN, Bishop, Martyr. 

Hlavian was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 
447. His short episcopate of two years was a time 
of conflict and persecution from the first. Chrysaphius, 
the emperor's favorite, tried to extort a large sum of money 
from him on the occasion of his consecration. His fidelity 
in refusing this simoniacal betrayal of his trust brought on 
him the enmity of the most powerful man in the empire. 

A graver trouble soon arose. In 448 Flavian had to con- 
demn the rising heresy of the monk Eutyches, who ob- 
stinately denied that Our Lord was in two perfect natures 
after His Incarnation. Eutyches drew to his cause all the 
bad elements which so early gathered about the Byzantine 
court. His intrigues were long baffled by the vigilance of 
Flavian ; but at last he obtained from the emperor the 
assembly of a council at Ephesus, in August 449, presided 
over by his friend Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria. Into 
this "robber council," as it is called, Eutyches entered, 
surrounded by soldiers. The Roman legates could not 
even read the Pope's letters ; and at the first sign of resist- 
ance to the condemnation of Flavian, fresh troops entered 
with drawn swords, and, in spite of the protests of the 
legates, terrified most of the bishops into acquiescence. 

The fury of Dioscorus reached its height when Flavian 
appealed to the Holy See. Then it was that he so forgot 
his apostolic office as to lay violent hands on his adversary. 
St, Flavian was set upon by Dioscorus and others, thrown 



FEBRUARY 18.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



121 



down, beaten, kicked, and finally carried into banishment. 
Let us contrast their ends. Flavian clung to the teaching 
of the Koman Pontiff, and sealed bis faith with his blood. 
Dioscorus excommunicated the Yicar of Christ, and died 
obstinate and impenitent in the heresy of Eutyches. 




Reflection. — By his unswerving loyalty to the Vicar of 
Christ, Flavian held fast to the truth and gained the 
martyr's crown. Let us learn from him to turn instinc- 
tively to that one true guide in all matters concerning our 
salvation. 



February 18.— ST. SIMEON, Bishop, Martyr. 

^^t. Simeon was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called 
Alpheus, brother to St. Joseph, and of Mary, sister 
to the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore nephew both to 
St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin to Our 
Saviour. We cannot doubt but that he was an early follower 
of Christ, and that he received the Holy Ghost on the day 
of Pentecost, with the Blessed Virgin and the apostles, 



122 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 18. 



When the Jews massacred St. James the Lesser, his brother 
Simeon reproached them for their atrocious cruelty. St. 
James, Bishop of Jerusalem, being put to death in the year 
62, twenty-nine years after Our Saviour's Kesurrection, the 
apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him a 
successor. They unanimously chose St. Simeon, who had 
probably before assisted his brother in the government of 
that Church. 

In the year 66, in which Sts. Peter and Paul suffered 
martyrdom at Rome, the civil w T ar began in Judea, by the 




seditions of the Jews against the Romans. The Christians 
in Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending de- 
struction of that city. They therefore departed out of it 
the same year, — before Vespasian, Nero's general, and 
afterwards emperor, entered Judea, — and retired beyond 
Jordan to a small city called Pella, having St. Simeon at 
their head. After the taking and burning of Jerusalem 
they returned thither again, and settled themselves amidst 
its ruins, till Adrian afterwards entirely razed it. The 



FEBRUARY 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



123 



Church here nourished, and multitudes of Jews were con- 
verted by the great number of prodigies and miracles 
wrought in it. 

Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put 
to death who were of the race of David. St. Simeon had 
escaped their searches ; but, Trajan having given the same 
order, certain heretics and Jews accused the Saint, as being 
both of the race of David and a Christian, to Atticus, the 
Roman governor in Palestine. The holy bishop was con- 
demned to be crucified. After having undergone the usual 
tortures during several days, which, though one hundred 
and twenty years old, he suffered with so much patience 
that he drew on him a universal admiration, and that of 
Atticus in particular, he died in 107. He must have gov- 
erned the Church of Jerusalem about forty-three years. 

Reflection. — We bear the name of Christians, but are 
full of the spirit of worldlings, and our actions are infected 
with the poison of the world. We secretly seek ourselves, 
even when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim ; 
and whilst we undertake to convert the world, we suffer it 
to pervert us. When shall we begin to study to crucify our 
passions and die to ourselves, that we may lay a solid founda- 
tion of true virtue and establish its reign in our hearts ? 

February 19. — ST. BARBATUS, Bishop. 

t. Barbatus was born in the territory of Benevento in 
Italy, toward the end of the pontificate of St. Greg- 
ory the Great, in the beginning of the seventh century. 
His parents gave him a Christian education, and Barbatus 
in his youth laid the foundation of that eminent sanctity 
which recommends him to our veneration. The innocence, 
simplicity, and purity of his manners, and his extraordinary 
progress in all virtues, qualified him for the service of the 
altar, to which he was assumed by taking Holy Orders 
as soon as the canons of the Church would allow it. 




124 



Little pictorial 



[FEBRUARY 19. 



He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, 
for which he had an extraordinary talent, and, after some 
time, made curate of St. Basil's in Morcona, a town near 
Benevento. His parishioners were steeled in their irregu- 
larities, and they treated him as a disturber of their peace, 
and persecuted him with the utmost violence. Finding 
their malice conquered by his patience and humility, and 
his character shining still more bright, they had recourse 




to slanders, in which their virulence and success was such 
that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable endeavors 
among them. Barbatus returned to Benevento, where he 
was received with joy. When St. Barbatus entered upon 
his ministry in that city, the Christians themselves retained 
many idolatrous superstitions, which even their duke, 
Prince Komuald, authorized by his example, though son of 
Grimoald, King of the Lombards, who had edified all Italy 
by his conversion. They expressed a religious veneration 
for a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it ; 
they also paid superstitious honor to a tree, on which 



FEBRUARY 20.] 



LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



125 



they hung the skin of a wild beast ; and these ceremonies 
were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a 
mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulders. 
St. Barbatus preached zealously against these abuses, and 
at length he roused the attention of the people by foretelling 
the distress of their city, and the calamities which it was to 
suffer from the army of the Emperor Constans, who, landing 
soon after in Italy, laid siege to Benevento. Ildebrand, 
Bishop of Benevento, dying during the siege, after the public 
tranquillity was restored St. Barbatus was consecrated bishop 
on the 10th of March, 663. Barbatus, being invested with 
the episcopal character, pursued and completed the good 
work which he had so happily begun, and destroyed every 
trace of superstition in the whole state. In the year 680 
he assisted in a council held by Pope Agatho at Rome, and 
the year following in the Sixth General Council held at Con- 
stantinople against the Monothelites. He did not long sur- 
vive this great assembly, for he died on the 29th of Febru- 
ary, 682, being about seventy years old, almost nineteen of 
which he had spent in the episcopal chair. 

Reflection. — St. Augustine says : " When the enemy has 
been cast out of your hearts, renounce him, not only in 
word, but in work ; not only by the sound of the lips, but 
in every act of your life." 



February 20.— ST. EUCHERIUS, Bishop. 

^^his Saint w 7 as born at Orleans, of a very illustrious 
Vr family. At his birth his parents dedicated him to 
God, and set him to study when he was but seven years 
old, resolving to omit nothing that could be done toward 
■cultivating his mind or forming his heart. His improve- 
ment in virtue kept pace w T ith his progress in learning : he 
meditated assiduously on the sacred writings, especially on 
St. Paul's manner of speaking on the world and its enjoy- 
ments as mere empty shadow's that deceive us and vanish 



126 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 20. 



away. These reflections at length sank so deep into his 
mind that he resolved to quit the world. To put this 
design in execution, about the year 714 he retired to the 




abbey of Jumiege in Normandy, where he spent six or 
seven years in the practice of penitential austerities and 
obedience. Suavaric, his uncle, Bishop of Orleans, having 
died, the senate and people, with the clergy of that city, 
begged permission to elect Eucherius to the vacant see. 
The Saint entreated his monks to screen him from the 
dangers that threatened him ; but they preferred the 
public good to their private inclinations, and resigned him 
for that important charge. He was consecrated with 
universal applause in 721. Charles Martel, to defray the 
expenses of his wars and other undertakings, often stripped 
the churches of their revenues. St. Eucherius reproved 
these encroachments with so much zeal that, in the year 
737, Charles banished him to Cologne. The extraordinary 
esteem which his virtue procured him in that city moved 
Charles to order him to be conveyed thence to a strong 



FEBRUARY 21.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



127 



place in the territory of Liege. Robert, the governor of 
that country, was so charmed with his virtue that he 
made him the distributer of his large alms, and allowed 
him to retire to the monastery of Sarchinium, or St. Tron's. 
Here prayer and contemplation were his whole employment 
till the year 743, in which he died, on the 20th of February. 

Reflection. — Nothing softens the soul and weakens piety 
so much as frivolous indulgence. God has revealed what 
high store He sets by "retirement" in these words : "I 
will lead her into solitude, and I will speak to her heart." 

February 21.— ST. SEVERIANUS, Martyr, Bishop. 

In the reign of Marcian and St. Pulcheria, the Council of 
Chalcedon, which condemned the Eutychian heresy, 
was received by St. Euthymius and by a great part of the 
monks of Palestine. But Theodosius, an ignorant Euty- 




chian monk, and a man of a most tyrannical temper, 
under the protection of the Empress Eudoxia, widow of 



128 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 22. 



Theodosius the Younger, who lived at Jerusalem, perverted 
many among the monks themselves, and having obliged 
Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, to withdraw, unjustly pos- 
sessed himself of that important see, and, in a cruel perse- 
cution which he raised, rilled Jerusalem with blood : then, 
at the head of a band of soldiers, he carried desolation over 
the country. Many, however, had the courage to stand 
their ground. No one resisted him with greater zeal and 
resolution than Severianus, Bishop of Scythopolis, and his 
recompense was the crown of martyrdom ; for the furious 
soldiers seized his person, dragged him out of the city, and 
massacred him, in the latter part of the year 452 or in the 
beginning of the year 453. 

Reflection. — With what floods of tears can we sufficiently 
bewail so grievous a misfortune, and implore the divine 
mercy in behalf of so many souls ! How ought we to be 
alarmed at the consideration of so many dreadful examples 
of God's inscrutable judgments, and tremble for ourselves ! 
4 ' Let him who stands beware lest he fall." ' ' Hold fast what 
thou hast," says the oracle of the Holy Ghost to every one 
of us, " lest another bear away thy crown." 

February 22.— ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ANTIOCH. 

hat St. Peter, before he w T ent to Eome, founded the 
see of Antioch is attested by many Saints. It w 7 as 
just that the Prince of the Apostles should take this city 
under his particular care and inspection, which was then 
the capital of the East, and in which the faith took so 
early and so deep root as to give birth in it to the name of 
Christians. St. Chrysostom says that St. Peter made there 
a long stay ; St. Gregory the Great, that he was seven 
years Bishop of Antioch ; not that he resided there all that 
time, but only that he had a particular care over that 
Church. If he sat twenty-five years at Kome, the date of 
his establishing his chair at Antioch must be w T ithin three 



FEBKUARY 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



129 



years after Our Saviour's Ascension ; for in that supposi- 
tion he must have gone to Rome in the second year of 
Claudius. In the first ages it was customary, especially in 
the East, for every Christian to keep the anniversary of 
his Baptism, on which he renewed his baptismal vows and 
gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption : this they 
called their spiritual birthday. The bishops in like manner 
kept the anniversary of their own consecration, as appears 
from four sermons of St. Leo on the anniversary of his 




accession or assumption to the pontifical dignity ; and this 
was frequently continued after their decease by the people, 
out of respect for their memory. St. Leo says we ought to 
celebrate the chair of St. Peter with no less joy than the 
day of his martyrdom; for as in this he was exalted to 
a throne of glory in heaven, so by the former he was in- 
stalled head of the Church on earth. 

Reflection. — On this festival we are especially bound to 
adore and thank the Divine Goodness for the establishment 
and propagation of His Church, and earnestly to pray that 



ISO 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [FEBRUARY 28. 



in His mercy He preserve the same, and dilate its pale, 
that His name may be glorified by all nations, and by all 
hearts, to the boundaries of the earth, for His divine honor 
and the salvation of souls, framed to His divine image, 
and the price of His adorable blood. 

February 23.-ST. PETER DAMIAN. 

T. Peter Damian was born in 988, and lost both 
parents at an early age. His eldest brother, in 
whose hands he was left, treated him so cruelly that a 
younger brother, a priest, moved by his piteous state, sent 
him to the University of Parma, where he acquired great 
distinction. His studies were sanctified by vigils, fasts, 
and prayers, till at last, thinking that all this was only 
serving God by halves, he resolved to leave the world. He 
joined the monks of Font-Avellano, then in the greatest 
repute, and by his wisdom and sanctity rose to be Superior. 
He was employed on the most delicate and difficult mis- 
sions, amongst others the reform of ecclesiastical commu- 
nities, which was effected by his zeal. Seven Popes in 
succession made him their constant adviser, and he was at 
last created Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. He withstood Henry 
IV. of Germany, and labored in defence of Alexander II. 
against the Antipope, whom he forced to yield and seek for 
pardon. He was charged, as Papal Legate, with the re- 
pression of simony ; again, was commissioned to settle dis- 
cords amongst various bishops ; and finally, in 1072, to 
adjust the affairs of the Church at Ravenna. He was laid 
low by a fever on his homeward journey, and died at 
Faenza, in a monastery of his order, on the eighth day of 
his sickness, whilst the monks chanted matins around him. 

Reflection. — The Saints studied, not in order to be ac- 
counted learned, but to become perfect. This only is wis- 
dom and true greatness, to account ourselves as ignorant, 




FEBRUARY 23.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 131 

and to adhere in all things to the teachings and instincts of 
the Church. 

ST. SERENUS, a Gardener, Martyr. 

^^erenus was by birth a Grecian. He quitted estate, 
friends, and country to serve God in celibacy, pen- 
ance, and prayer. With this design he bought a garden in 
Sirmium in Pannonia, which he cultivated with his own 




hands, and lived on the fruits and herbs it produced. One 
day there came thither a woman, with her two daughters. 
Serenus, seeing them come up, advised them to withdraw, 
and to conduct themselves in future as decency required in 
persons of their sex and condition. The woman, stung at 
our Saint's charitable remonstrance, retired in confusion, 
but resolved on revenging the supposed affront. She ac- 
cordingly wrote to her husband that Serenus had insulted 
her. He, on receiving her letter, went to the emperor to 
demand justice, whereupon the emperor gave him a letter 



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LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 23. 



to the governor of the province to enable him to obtain sat- 
isfaction. The governor ordered Serenus to be immediately 
brought before him. Serenus, on hearing the charge, an- 
swered, "I remember that, some time ago, a lady came 
into my garden at an unseasonable hour, and I own I took 
the liberty to tell her it was against decency for one of her 
sex and quality to be abroad at such an hour." This plea 
of Serenus having put the officer to the blush for his wife's 
conduct, he dropped his prosecution. But the governor, 
suspecting by this answer that Serenus might be a Chris- 
tian, began to question him, saying, "Who are you, and 
what is your religion ? " Serenus, without hesitating one 
moment, answered, " I am a Christian. It seemed a while 
ago as if God rejected me as a stone unfit to enter His 
building, but He has the goodness to take me now to be 
placed in it ; I am ready to suffer all things for His name, 
that I may have a part in His kingdom with His Saints." 
The governor, hearing this, burst into rage, and said, 
"Since you sought to elude by flight the emperor's edicts, 
and have positively refused to sacrifice to the gods, I con- 
demn you for these crimes to lose your head." The sen- 
tence was no sooner pronounced than the Saint was carried 
off and beheaded, on the 23d of February, in 307. 

Reflection. — The garden affords a beautiful emblem of a 
Christian's continual progress in the path of virtue. Plants 
always mount upwards, and never stop in their growth till 
they have attained to that maturity which the Author of 
nature has prescribed. So in a Christian, everything ought 
to carry him toward that perfection which the sanctity of 
his state requires ; and every desire of his soul, every action 
of his life should be a step advancing to this in a direct 
line. 



FEBKTTAKY 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



133 




February 24.— ST. MATTHIAS, Apostle. 

< "t""1"*fter our blessed Lord's Ascension His disciples met 
<*£^-» together, with Mary His mother and the eleven 
apostles, in an ripper room at Jerusalem. The little com- 
pany numbered no more than one hundred and twenty 
souls. They were waiting for the promised coming of the 
Holy Ghost, and they persevered in prayer. Meanwhile 
there was a solemn act to be performed on the part of the 
Church, which could not be postponed. The place of the 
fallen Judas must be filled up, that the elect number of the 
apostles might be complete. St. Peter, therefore, as Vicar 
of Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. That which 
the Holy Ghost had spoken by the mouth of David concern- 
ing Judas, he said, must be fulfilled. Of him it had been 
written, " His bishopric let another take." A choice, there- 
fore, was to be made of one among those who had been 
their companions from the beginning, who could bear wit- 
ness to the Eesurrection of Jesus. Two were named of 
equal merit, Joseph called Barsabas, and Matthias. Then, 



134 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [FEBRUARY 25. 



after praying to God, Who knows the hearts of all men, to 
show which of these He had chosen, they cast lots, and the 
lot fell upon Matthias, who was forthwith numbered with 
the apostles. It is recorded of the Saint, thus wonderfully 
elected to so high a vocation, that he was above all remark- 
able for his mortification of the flesh. It was thus that he 
made his election sure. 

Reflection. — Our ignorance of many points in St. Mat- 
thias's life serves to fix the attention all the more firmly 
upon these two — the occasion of his call to the apostolate, 
and the fact of his perseverance. "We then naturally turn 
in thought to our own vocation and our own end. 

February 25.— ST. TARASIUS. 

arasius was born at Constantinople about the middle 
of the eighth century, of a noble family. His 
mother, Eucratia, brought him up in the practice of the 
most eminent virtues. By his talents and virtue he gained 
the esteem of all, and was raised to the greatest honors of 
the empire, being made consul, and afterwards first secre- 
tary of state to the Emperor Coustantine and the Empress 
Irene, his mother. In the midst of the court, and in its 
highest honors, he led a life like that of a religious man. 
Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, the third of that name, 
though he had conformed in some respects to the then 
reigning heresy, had several good qualities, and was not 
only beloved by the people for his charity to the poor, but 
highly esteemed by the whole court for his great prudence. 
Touched with remorse, he quitted the patriarchal see, and 
put on a religious habit in the monastery of Florus in 
Constantinople. Tarasius was chosen to succeed him by 
the unanimous consent of the court, clergy, and people. 
Finding it in vain to oppose his election, he declared that 
he could not in conscience accept of the government of a 
see which had been cut off from the Catholic communion, 



FEBRUARY 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



135 



except on condition that a general council should be called 
to compose the disputes which divided the Church at that 
time in relation to holy images. This being agreed to, he 
was solemnly declared patriarch, and consecrated soon 
after, on Christmas Day. The council was opened on the 
1st of August, in the Church of the Apostles at Constanti- 
nople, in 786 ; but, being disturbed by the violences of the 
Iconoclasts, it adjourned, and met again the year following 
in the Church of St. Sophia at Mce. The council, having 




declared the seuse of the Church in relation to the matter 
in debate, which was found to be the allowing to holy 
pictures and images a relative honor, was closed with the 
usual acclamations and prayers for the prosperity of the 
emperor and empress ; after which, synodal letters were 
sent to all the churches, and in particular to the Pope, who 
approved the council. The life of this holy patriarch was a 
model of perfection to his clergy and people. His table 
contained barely the necessaries of life ; he allowed himself 
very little time for sleep, being always up the first and last 



136 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 26. 



in his family. Reading and prayer filled all his leisure 
hours. The emperor having become enamoured of Theo- 
dota, a maid of honor to his wife, the Empress Mary, was 
resolved to divorce the latter. He used all his efforts to 
gain the patriarch over to his desires, but St. Tarasius 
resolutely refused to countenance the iniquity. The holy 
man gave up his soul to God in peace on the 25th of Feb- 
ruary, 806, after having sat twenty-one years and two 
months. 

Reflection. — The highest praise which Scripture pro- 
nounces on the holy man Job is comprised in these words, 
" He was simple and upright." 

February 26.— ST. PORPHYRY, Bishop. 

t the age of twenty-five, Porphyry, a rich citizen of 
Thessalonica, left the world for one of the great re- 
ligious houses in the desert of Scete. Here he remained five 
years, and then, finding himself drawn to a more solitary 
life, passed into Palestine, where he spent a similar period in 
the severest penance, till ill health obliged him to moderate 
his austerities. He then made his home in Jerusalem, and 
in spite of his ailments visited the Holy Places every day ; 
thinking, says his biographer, so little of his sickness that 
he seemed to be afflicted in another body, and not his own. 
About this time God put it into his heart to sell all he had 
and give to the poor, and then in reward of the sacrifice 
restored him by a miracle to perfect health. In 393 he 
was ordained priest and intrusted with the care of the 
relics of the true cross ; three years later, in spite of all 
the resistance his humility could make, he was consecrated 
Bishop of Gaza. That city was a hotbed of paganism, and 
Porphyry found in it an ample scope for his apostolic zeal. 
His labors and the miracles which attended them effected the 
conversion of many ; and an imperial edict for the destruc- 
tion of the pagan temples, obtained through the influence 




FEBRUARY 26.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



137 



of St. John Chrysostom, greatly strengthened his hands. 
When St. Porphyry first went to Gaza, he found there one 
temple more splendid than the rest, in honor of the chief 
god. When the edict went forth to destroy all traces of 
heathen worship, St. Porphyry determined to put Satan to 
special shame where he had received special honor. A 
Christian church was built upon the site, and its approach 
was paved with the marbles of the heathen temple. Thus 




every worshipper of Jesus Christ trod the relics of idolatry 
and superstition underfoot each time he went to assist at 
the holy Mass. He lived to see his diocese for the most 
part clear of idolatry, and died a.d. 420. 

Reflection. — All superstitious searching into secret things 
is forbidden by the First Commandment equally with the 
worship of any false god. Let us ask St. Porphyry for a 
great zeal in keeping this commandment, lest we be led 
away, as so many are, by a curious and prying mind. 



138 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 27. 



February 27.— ST. LEANDER, Bishop. 

t. Leander was born of an illustrious family at Cartha- 
1^ gena in Spain. He was the eldest of five brothers, 
several of whom are numbered among the Saints. He 
entered into a monastery very young, where he lived many 
years and attained to an eminent degree of virtue and 
sacred learning. These qualities occasioned his being pro- 




moted to the see of Seville ; but his change of condition 
made little or no alteration in his method of life, though 
it brought on him a great increase of care and solicitude. 
Spain at that time was in possession of the Visigoths. 
These Goths, being infected with Arianism, established this 
heresy wherever they came ; so that when St. Leander was 
made bishop it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. 
This was his great affliction ; however, by his prayers to 
God, and by his most zealous and unwearied endeavors, he 
became the happy instrument of the conversion of that 
nation to the Catholic faith. Having converted, among 



FEBRUARY 28.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



others, Hermenegild, the king's eldest son and heir ap- 
parent, Leander was banished by King Leoyigild. This 
pious prince was put to death by his unnatural father, the 
year following, for refusing to receive Communion from the 
hands of an Arian bishop. But, touched with remorse not 
long after, the king recalled our Saint ; and falling sick 
and finding himself past hopes of recovery, he sent for St. 
Leander, and recommended to him his son Eecared. This 
son, by listening to St. Leander, soon became a Catholic, 
and finally converted the whole nation of the Visigoths. 
He was no less successful with respect to the Suevi, a people 
of Spain, whom his father Leovigild had perverted. 

St. Leander was no less zealous in the reformation of 
manners than in restoring the purity of faith ; and he 
planted the seeds of that zeal and fervor which afterwards 
produced so many martyrs and Saints. This holy doctor 
of Spain died about the year 596, on the 27th of February, 
as Mabillon proves from his epitaph. The Church of 
Seville has been a metropolitan see ever since the third 
century. The cathedral is the most magnificent, both as to 
structure and ornament, of any in all Spain. 



February 28 STS. ROMANUS and LUPICINUS, Abbots. 

*r^) omanus at thirty-five years of age left his relative 
r*~\j and spent some time in the monastery of Ainay at 
Lyons, at the great church at the conflux of the Saone and 
Ehone which the faithful had built over the ashes of the 
famous martyrs of that city ; for their bodies being burned 
by the pagans, their ashes were thrown into the Ehone, but 
a great part of them was gathered by the Christians and 
deposited in this place. Eomanus a short time after retired 
into the forests of Mount Jura, between France and 
Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a place called Condate, 
at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere, where he 
found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees 



140 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[FEBRUARY 28. 



which furnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he 
spent his time in praying, reading, and laboring for his 
subsistence. Lupicinus, his brother, came to him some time 
after in company with others, who w r ere followed by several 
more, drawn by the fame of the virtue and miracles of 
these two Saints. Their numbers increasing, they built 




several monasteries, and a nunnery called La Beaume, 
which no men were allowed ever to enter, and where St. 
Eomanus chose his burial-place. The brothers governed the 
monks jointly and in great harmony, though Lupicinus 
was the more inclined to severity of the two. Lupicinus used 
no other bed than a chair or a hard board ; never touched 
wine, and would scarcely ever suffer a drop either of oil or 
milk to be poured on his pottage. In summer his subsist- 
ence for many years was only hard bread moistened in cold 
water, so that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was 
made of various skins of beasts sewn together, with a cowl ; 
he used wooden shoes, and wore no stockings unless when 
he was obliged to go out of the monastery. St. Roman us 



FEBRUARY 29.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



141 



died about the year 460, and St. Lupicinus survived him 
almost twenty years. 

February 29.— ST. OSWALD, Bishop. 

Oswald was of a noble Saxon family, and was endowed 
with a very rare and beautiful form of body and 
with a singular piety of soul. He was brought up by his 
uncle, St. Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was chosen, 
while still young, dean of the secular canons of Winchester, 
then very relaxed. His attempt to reform them was a 
failure ; and he saw, with that infallible instinct which so 
often guides the Saints in critical times, that the true 
remedy for the corruptions of the clergy was the restora- 
tion of the monastic life. He therefore went to France 
and took the habit of St. Benedict, but returned, only to 
receive the news of Odo's death. He found, however, a 
new patron in St. Dunstan, now metropolitan, through 
whose influence he was nominated to the see of Worcester. 
To these two Saints, together with Ethelwold of Winchester, 
the monastic revival of the tenth century is mainly due. 
Oswald's first care was to deprive of their benefices the dis- 
orderly clerics, whom he replaced as far as possible by 
regulars, and himself founded seven religious houses. 
Considering that in the hearts of the secular canons there 
were yet some sparks of virtue, he would not at once expel 
them, but rather entrapped them by a holy artifice. Ad- 
joining the cathedral he built a church in honor of the 
Mother of God, causing it to be served by a body of strict 
religious. He himself assisted at the divine Office in this 
church, and his example was followed by the people. The 
canons, finding themselves isolated and their cathedral de- 
serted, chose rather to embrace the religious life than to 
continue not only to injure their own souls, but to be a 
mockery to their people by reason of the contrast offered 
by their worldliness to the regularity of their religious 



142 



LlTfLft inCTOKtAL 



[makch i. 



brethren. As Arclibishop of York a like success attended 
St. Oswald's efforts ; and God manifested His approval of 
his zeal by discovering to him the relics of his great prede- 
cessor, St. Wilfrid, which he reverently translated to 
Worcester. He died February 29, 992. 

Reflection. — A soul without discipline is like a ship 
without a helm : she must inevitably strike unawares upon 
the rocks, founder on the shoals, or float unknowingly into 
the harbor of the enemy. 



March 1 ST. DAVID, Bishop. 

CSt. David, son of Sant, Prince of Cardigan and of Non, 
w r as born in that country in the fifth century, and 
from his earliest years gave himself wholly to the service 
of God. He began his religious life under St. Paulinus, a 
disciple of St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who had been 
sent to Britain by Pope St. Celestine to stop the ravages of 
the heresy of Pelagius, at that time abbot, as it is said, of 
Bangor. On the reappearance of that heresy, in the begin- 
ning of the sixth century, the bishops assembled at Brevi, 
and, unable to address the people that came to hear the 
word of truth, sent for St. David from his cell to preach to 
them. The Saint came, and it is related that, as he 
preached, the ground beneath his feet rose and became a 
hill, so that he w x as heard by an innumerable crowd. The 
heresy fell under the sword of the Spirit, and the Saint 
was elected Bishop of Caerleon on the resignation of St. 
Dubricius ; but he removed the see to Menevia, a lone and 
desert spot, where he might, with his monks, serve God 
away from the noise of the world. He founded twelve 
monasteries, and governed his Church according to the 
canons sanctioned in Rome. At last, when about eighty 
years of age, he laid himself down, knowing that his hour 
was come. As his agony closed, Our Lord stood before him 



MAKCH 1.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



143 



in a vision, and the Saint cried out, ' 1 Take me up with 
Thee," and so gave up his soul on Tuesday, March 1, 561. 

ST. ALBINUS, Bishop. 

CN*T. Albinus was of an ancient and noble family in Brit- 
tany, and from his childhood was fervent in every 
exercise of piety. He ardently sighed after the happiness 
which a devout soul finds in being perfectly disengaged 
from all earthly things. Having embraced the monastic 




state at Tintillant, near Angers, he shone a perfect^ model 
of virtue, living as if in all things he had been without 
any will of his own ; and his soul seemed so perfectly gov- 
erned by the spirit of Christ as to live only for Him. At 
the age of thirty-five years he was chosen abbot, in 504, 
and twenty-five years afterwards Bishop of Angers. He 
everywhere restored discipline, being inflamed with a holy 
zeal for the honor of God. His dignity seemed to make no 
alteration either in his mortifications or in the constant 
recollection of his soul. Honored by all the world, even by 



144 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[march 2. 



kings, he was never affected with vanity. Powerful in 
works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most un- 
worthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, 
and had no other ambition than to appear such in the eyes 
of others as he was in those of his own humility. In the 
third Council of Orleans, in 538, he procured the thirtieth 
canon of the Council of Epaone to be revived, by which 
those are declared excommunicated who presume to con- 
tract incestuous marriages in the first or second degree of 
consanguinity or affinity. He died on the 1st of March, 
in 549. 

Reflection. — With whatever virtues a man may be en- 
dowed, he will discover, if he considers himself attentively, 
a sufficient depth of misery to afford cause for deep 
humility; but Jesus Christ says, u He that humbleth him- 
self shall be exalted." 



March 2 ST. SIMPLICIUS, Pope. 

^^t. Simplicius was the ornament of the Koman clergy 
under Sts. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter 
in the pontificate in 468. He was raised by God to com- 
fort and support his Church amidst the greatest storms. 
All the provinces of the Western Empire, out of Italy, were 
fallen into the hands of barbarians. The emperors for 
many years were rather shadows of power than sovereigns, 
and, in the eighth year of the pontificate of Simplicius, 
Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners. Italy, by oppres- 
sions and the ravages of barbarians, was left almost a desert 
without inhabitants ; and the imperial armies consisted 
chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries. 
These soon saw that their masters were in their power. 
The Heruli demanded one third of the lands of Italy, and, 
upon refusal, chose for their leader Odoacer, one of the 
lowest extraction, but a resolute and intrepid man, who 
was proclaimed king at Rome in 476. He put to death 



MARCH 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



145 



Orestes, who was regent of the empire for his son Augus- 
tulus, wiiom the senate had advanced to the imperial 
throne. Odoacer spared the life of Augustulus, appointed 
him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and per- 
mitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. Pope Sim- 
plicius was wholly taken up in comforting and relieving 
the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith 
among the barbarians. The East gave his zeal no less em- 
ployment and concern. Peter Cnapheus, a violent Euty- 




chian, was made by the heretics Patriarch of Antioch ; and 
Peter Mongus, one of the most profligate men, that of 
Alexandria. Acacius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, 
received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, 
but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic 
Church, and was a notorious changeling, double-dealer, 
and artful hypocrite, who often made religion serve his 
own private ends. St. Simplicius at length discovered his 
artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy faith, 
which he saw betrayed on every side, whilst the patriarchal 



146 



LITTLE PIOTOIUAL 



[MARCH B. 



sees of Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious 
wolves, and there was not one Catholic king in the whole 
world. The emperor measured everything by his passions 
and human views. St. Simplicius, having sat fifteen years 
eleven months and six days, went to receive the reward of 
his labors in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d 
of March. 

Reflection.— " He that trusteth in God shall fare never 
the worse," saith the Wise Man in the Book of Ecclesi- 
asticus. 

March 3.-ST. CUNEGUNDES, Empress, 

Q{t. Cunegundes was the daughter of Sigefride, the first 
Count of Luxemburg, and Hadeswige, his pious wife. 
They instilled into her from her cradle the most tender 
sentiments of piety, and married her to St. Henry, Duke 
of Bavaria, who, upon the death of the Emperor Otho III., 
was chosen king of the Komans, and crowned on the 6th of 
June, 1002. She was crowned at Paderborn on St. Lau- 
rence's day. In the year 1014 she went with her husband 
to Rome, and received the imperial crown with him from 
the hands of Pope Benedict VIII. She had, by St. Henry's 
consent, before her marriage made a vow of virginity. 
Calumniators afterwards made vile accusations against her, 
and the holy empress, to remove the scandal of such a 
slander, trusting in God to prove her innocence, walked 
over red-hot ploughshares without being hurt. The em- 
peror condemned his too scrupulous fears and credulity, 
and from that time they lived in the strictest union of 
hearts, conspiring to promote in everything God's honor 
and the advancement of piety. 

Going once to make a retreat in Hesse, she fell danger- 
ously ill, and made a vow to found a monastery, if she re- 
covered, at Kaifungen, near Cassel, in the diocese of Pader- 
born, which she executed in a stately manner, and gave it 



MARCH 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



147 



to nuns of the Order of St. Benedict. Before it was fin- 
ished St. Henry died, in 1024. She earnestly recommended 
his soul to the prayers of others, especially to her dear 
nuns, and expressed her longing desire of joining them. 
She had already exhausted her treasures in founding 
bishoprics and monasteries, and in relieving the poor, and 
she had therefore little left now to give. But still thirsting 
to embrace perfect evangelical poverty, and to renounce all 
to serve God without obstacle, she assembled a great number 




of prelates to the dedication of her church of Kaffungen on 
the anniversary day of her husband's death, 1025 ; and 
after the gospel was sung at Mass she offered on the altar 
a piece of the true cross, and then, putting off her imperial 
robes, clothed herself with a poor habit ; her hair was cut 
off, and the bishop put on her a veil, and a ring as a 
pledge of her fidelity to her heavenly Spouse. After she 
was consecrated to God in religion, she seemed entirely to 
forget that she had been empress, and behaved as the last 
in the house, being persuaded that she was so before God, 



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LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAltCH 4. 



She prayed and read much, worked with her hands, and 
took a singular pleasure in visiting and comforting the 
sick. Thus she passed the last fifteen years of her life. 
Her mortifications at lengt h reduced her to a very weak con- 
dition, and brought on her last sickness. Perceiving that 
they were preparing a cloth fringed with gold to cover her 
corpse after her death, she changed color and ordered it 
to be taken away ; nor could she be at rest till she was 
promised she should be buried as a poor religious in her 
habit. She died on the 3d of March, 1040. Her body 
was carried to Bamberg^and buried near that of her hus- 
band. She was solemnly canonized by Innocent III. in 
1200. 

Reflection. — Detachment of the mind, at least, is need- 
ful to those who cannot venture on an effectual renuncia- 
tion. " So likewise every one of you," saith Jesus Christ, 
' ' that doth not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be 
My disciple." 

March 4. — ST. CASIMIR, King. 

Oasimir, the second son of Casimir III. , King of Poland, 
was born a.d. 1458. From the custody of a most 
virtuous mother, Elizabeth of Austria, he passed to the 
guardianship of a devoted master, the learned and pious 
John Dugloss. Thus animated from his earliest years by 
precept and example, his innocence and piety soon ripened 
into the practice of heroic virtue. At the age of twenty- 
five, sick of a lingering illness, he foretold the hour of his 
death, and chose to die a virgin rather than take the life 
and health which the doctors held out to him in the mar- 
ried state. In an atmosphere of luxury and magnificence 
the young prince had fasted, worn a hair-shirt, slept upon 
the bare earth, prayed by night, and watched for the open- 
ing of the church doors at dawn. He had become so ten- 
derly devoted to the Passion of Our Lord that at Mass he 



MARCH 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



149 



seemed quite rapt out of himself, and his charity to the 
poor and afflicted knew no bounds. His love for our 
blessed Lady he expressed in a long and beautiful hymn, 
familiar to us in our own tongue. The miracles wrought 
by his body after death fill a volume. The blind saw, the 
lame walked, the sick were healed, a dead girl was raised 
to life. And once the Saint in glory led his countrymen to 




battle, and delivered them by a glorious victory from the 
schismatic Eussian hosts. 

One hundred and twenty-two years after his death the 
Saint's tomb in the cathedral of Vienna was opened, that 
the holy body might be transferred to the rich marble 
chapel where it now lies. The place was damp, and the 
very vault crumbled away in the hands of the workmen ; 
yet the Saint's body, wrapped in robes of silk, was found 
whole and incorrupt, and emitted a sweet fragrance, which 
filled the church and refreshed all who were present. Under 
his head was found his hymn to Our Lady, which he had 
had buried with him. The following night three young 



150 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 5. 



men saw a brilliant light issuing from the open tomb and 
streaming through the windows of the chapel. 

Reflection. — Let the study of St. Casimir's life make us 
increase in devotion to the most pure Mother of God — a 
sure means of preserving holy purity. 

March 5.— STS. ADRIAN and EUBULUS, Martyrs. 



IN the seventh year of Diocletian's persecution, con- 
tinued by Galerius Maximianus, when Firmilian, the 
most bloody governor of Palestine, had stained Caesarea 




with the blood of many illustrious martyrs, Adrian and 
Eubulus came out of the country called Magantia to 
Csesarea, in order to visit the holy confessors there. At 
the gates of the city they were asked, as others were, 
whither they were going, and upon what errand. They 
ingenuously confessed the truth, and were brought before 
the president, who ordered them to be tortured and their 
sides to be torn with iron hooks, and then condemned them 
to be exposed to wild beasts. Two days after, when the 



MARCH 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



151 



pagans at Caesarea celebrated the festival of the public 
Genius, Adrian was exposed to a lion, and not being de- 
spatched by that beast, but only mangled, was at length 
killed by the sword. Eubulus was treated in the same 
manner two days later. The judge offered him his liberty 
if he would sacrifice to idols ; but the Saint preferred a 
glorious death, and was the last that suffered in this perse- 
cution at Caesarea, which had now continued twelve years, 
under three successive governors, Flavian, Urban, and Fir- 
milian. Divine vengeance pursuing the cruel Firmilian, 
he was that same year beheaded for his crimes, by the 
emperor's order, as his predecessor Urban had been two 
years before. 

Reflection. — It is in vain that we take the name of 
Christians, or pretend to follow Christ, unless we carry our 
crosses after Him. It is in vain that we hope to share in 
His glory, and in His kingdom, if we accept not the con- 
dition. We cannot arrive at heaven by any other road but 
that which Christ held, Who bequeathed His cross to all 
His elect as their portion and inheritance in this world. 

March 6.— ST. COLETTE, Virgin. 
1 j |'fter a holy childhood, Colette joined a society of 



cJr-*^ devout women called the Beguines ; but not finding 
their state sufficiently austere, she entered the Third Order 
of St. Francis, and lived in a hut near her parish church of 
Corbie in Picardy. Here she had passed four years of 
extraordinary penance when St. Francis, in a vision, bade 
her undertake the reform of her Order, then much re- 
laxed. Armed with due authority, she established her 
reform throughout a large part of Europe, and, in spite of 
the most violent opposition, founded seventeen convents of 
the strict observance. By the same wonderful prudence 
she assisted in healing the great schism which then afflicted 
the Church. The Fathers in council at Constance were in 




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LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 6. 



doubt how to deal with the three claimants to the tiara — 
John XXIII. , Benedict XIII. , and Gregory XII. At this 
crisis Colette, together with St. Vincent Ferrer, wrote to 
the Fathers to depose Benedict XIII. , who alone refused 
his consent to a new election. This was done, and Martin 
V. was elected, to the great good of the Church. Colette 
equally assisted the Council of Basle by her advice and 
prayers ; and when, later, God revealed to her the spirit 
of revolt .that was rising, she warned the bishops and 




legates to retire from the council. St. Colette never 
ceased to pray for the Church, while the devils, in turn, 
never ceased to assault her. They swarmed round her as 
hideous insects, buzzing and stinging her tender skin. 
They brought into her cell the decaying corpses of public 
criminals, and assuming themselves monstrous forms struck 
her savage blows ; or they would appear in the most 
seductive guise, and tempt her by many deceits to sin. St. 
Colette once complained to Our Lord that the demons pre- 
vented her from praying. " Cease, then," said the devil 



MARCH ?.] 



LIVES 'THE SAINTS. 



toiler, "your prayers to the great Master of the Church, 
and we will cease to torment you ; for you torment us 
more by your prayers than we do you." Yet the virgin of 
Christ triumphed alike over their threats and their allure- 
ments, and said she would count that day the unhappiest of 
her life in which she suffered nothing for her God. She died 
March 6, 1447, in a transport of intercession for sinners 
and the Church. 

Reflection. — One of the greatest tests of being a good 
Catholic is zeal for the Church and devotion to Christ's 
Vicar. 

March 7.— ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 

Of T. Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino in 
JS-^ Italy, a.d. 1226. At the age of nineteen he received 
the Dominican habit at Naples, where he was studying. 
Seized by his brothers on his way to Paris, he suffered a 
two years' captivity in their castle of Kocca-Secca ; but 
neither the caresses of his mother and sisters, nor the 
threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake him in 
his vocation. While St. Thomas was in confinement at 
Eocca-Secca, his brothers endeavored to entrap him into 
sin, but the attempt only ended in the triumph of his 
purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning brand, the 
Saint drove from his chamber the wretched creature 
whom they had there concealed. Then marking a cross 
upon the wall, he knelt down to pray, and forthwith, being 
rapt in ecstasy, an angel girded him with a cord, in token 
of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given 
him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that 
St. Thomas uttered a piercing cry, which brought his 
guards into the room. But he never told this grace to 
any one save only to Father Raynald, his confessor, a little 
while before his death. Hence originated the Confrater- 
nity of the "Angelic Warfare," for the preservation of the 



154 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[march 



virtue of chastity. Having at length escaped, St. Thomas 
went to Cologne to study under Blessed Albert the Great, 
and after that to Paris, where for many years he taught 




philosophy and theology. The Church has ever venerated 
his numerous writings as a treasure-house of sacred doc- 
trine ; while in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has 
indicated that his science is more divine than human. The 
rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with the 
tenderest piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more 
than study. His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment shines forth in the Office and hymns for Corpus 
Christi, which he composed. To the words miraculously 
uttered by a crucifix at Naples, " Well hast thou written 
concerning Me, Thomas. What shall I give thee as are- 
ward?" he replied, "Naught save Thyself, O Lord." He 
died at Fossa-Nuova, a.d. 1274, on his way to the General 
Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X. had sum- 
moned him. 



MARCH 8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



155 



Reflection. — The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden 
treasures are reserved for those who have ever followed the 
Lamb. 

March 8.— ST. JOHN OF GOD. 

^I^vothing in John's early life foreshadowed his future 
sanctity. He ran away as a boy from his home in 
Portugal, tended sheep and cattle in Spain, and served as a 
soldier against the French, and afterwards against the 
Turks. When about forty years of age, feeling remorse 
for his wild life, he resolved to devote himself to the 
ransom of the Christian slaves in Africa, and went thither 
with the family of an exiled noble, which he maintained 
by his labor. On his return to Spain he sought to do good 




by selling holy pictures and books at low prices. At length 
the hour of grace struck. At Granada a sermon by the 
celebrated John of Avila shook his soul to its depths, and 
his expressions of self-abhorrence were so extraordinary 
that he was taken to the asylum as one mad. There he 



156 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 9. 



employed himself in ministering to the sick. On leaving 
he began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by 
his work and by begging. One night St. John found in 
the streets a poor man who seemed near death, and, as was 
his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed, 
and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had 
washed them, he knelt to kiss them, and started with awe : 
the feet were pierced, and the print of the nails bright with 
an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes to look, and 
heard the words, "John, to Me thou doest all that thou 
doest to the poor in My name : I reach forth My hand for 
the alms thou givest ; Me dost thou clothe, Mine are the 
feet thou dost wash." And then the gracious vision disap- 
peared, leaving St. John filled at once with confusion and 
consolation. The bishop became the Saint's patron, and 
gave him the name of John of God. When his hospital 
was on fire, John was seen rushing about uninjured amidst 
the flames until he had rescued all his poor. After ten 
years spent in the service of the suffering, the Saint's life 
was fitly closed. He plunged into the river Xenil to save a 
drowning boy, and died a.d. 1550 of an illness brought on 
by the attempt, at the age of fifty-five. 

Reflection. — God often rewards men for works that are 
pleasing in His sight by giving them grace and opportunity 
to do other works higher still. St. John of God used to 
attribute his conversion, and the graces which enabled him 
to do such great works, to his self-denying charity in 
Africa. 

March 9. — ST. FRANCES OF ROME. 

Hrances was born at Rome in 1384. Her parents were 
of high rank. They overruled her desire to become 
a nun, and at twelve years of age married her to Lorenzo 
Ponziano, a Roman noble. During the forty years of their 
married life they never had a disagreement. While spend- 



MARCH 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



157 



ing her days in retirement and prayer, she attended 
promptly to every household duty, saying, "A married 
woman must leave God at the altar to find Him in her 
domestic cares ; " and she once found the verse of a psalm 
in which she had been four times thus interrupted com- 
pleted for her in letters of gold. Her ordinary food was 
dry bread. Secretly she would exchange with beggars 
good food for their hard crusts ; her drink was water, and 
her cup a human skull. During the invasion of Kome. in 




1413, Ponziano was banished, his estates confiscated, his 
house destroyed, and his eldest son taken as a hostage. 
Frances saw in these losses only the finger of God, and 
blessed His holy name. When peace was restored Pon- 
ziano recovered his estates, and Frances founded the 
Oblates. After her husband's death, barefoot and with a 
cord about her neck she begged admission to the com- 
munity, and was soon elected Superioress. She lived 
always in the presence of God, and amongst many visions 
was given constant sight of her angel guardian, who shed 



158 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[march 10. 



such a brightness around him that the Saint could read her 
midnight Office by this light alone. He shielded her in 
the hour of temptation, and directed her in every good act. 
But when she was betrayed into some defect, he faded 
from her sight ; and when some light words were spoken 
before her, he covered his face in shame. .She died on the 
day she had foretold, March 9, 1440. 

Reflection. — God has appointed an angel to guard each 
one of us, to whose warnings we are bound to attend. Let 
us listen to his voice here, and we shall see him hereafter 
when he leads us before the throne of God. 

March 10. — THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE. 

he Forty Martyrs were soldiers quartered at Sebaste 
in Armenia, about the year 320. When their legion 
was ordered to offer sacrifice they separated themselves 
from the rest and formed a company of martyrs. After 
they had been torn by scourges and iron hooks they were 
chained together and led to a lingering death. It was a 
cruel winter, and they were condemned to lie naked on the 
icy surface of a pond in the open air till they were frozen 
to death. But they ran undismayed to the place of their 
combat, joyfully stripped off their garments, and with one 
voice besought God to keep their ranks unbroken. 4 4 Forty, " 
they cried, 1 1 we have come to combat : grant that forty 
may be crowned." There were warm baths hard by, ready 
for any one amongst them who would deny Christ. The 
soldier who watched saw angels descending with thirty-nine 
crowns, and, while he wondered at the deficiency in the 
number, one of the confessors lost heart, renounced his 
faith, and, crawling to the fire, died body and soul at the 
spot where he expected relief. But the soldier was in- 
spired to confess Christ and take his place, and again the 
number of forty was complete. They remained steadfast 
while their limbs grew stiff and frozen, and died one by 



MARCH 10.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



159 



one. Among the Forty there was a young soldier who held 
out longest against the cold, and when the officers came 
to cart away the dead bodies they found him still breath- 
ing. They were moved with pity, and wanted to leave him 
alive in the hope that he would still change his mind. But 
his mother stood by, and this valiant woman could not bear 
to see her son separated from the band of martyrs. She 




exhorted him to persevere, and lifted his frozen body into 
the cart. He was just able to make a sign of recognition, 
and was borne away, to be thrown into the flames with the 
dead bodies of his brethren. 

Reflection. — All who live the life of grace are one in 
Christ. But besides this there are many special ties — of 
religion, of community life, or at least of aspirations in 
prayer, and pious works. Thank God if He has bound you 
to others by these spiritual ties ; remember the character 
you have to support, and pray that the bond which unites 
you here may last for eternity. 



160 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[mahch 11. 



March 11. — ST. EULOGIUS, Martyr. 

C^(t. Eulogius was of a senatorian family of Cordova, at 
that time the capital of the Moors in Spain. Our 
Saint was educated among the clergy of the Church of St. 
Zoilus, a martyr who suffered with nineteen others under 
Diocletian. Here he distinguished himself by his virtue 
and learning, and, being made priest, was placed at the 
head of the chief ecclesiastical school at Cordova. He 
joined assiduous watching, fasting, and prayer to his 
studies, and his humility, mildness, and charity gained 
him the affection and respect of every one. During the 
persecution raised against the Christians in the year 850, 
St. Eulogius was thrown into prison and there wrote his 
Exhortation to Martyrdom, addressed to the virgins Flora 
and Mary, who were beheaded the 24th of November, 851. 
Six days after their death Eulogius was set at liberty. In 
the year 852 several others suffered the like martyrdom. 
St. Eulogius encouraged all these martyrs to their triumphs, 
and was the support of that distressed flock. The Arch- 
bishop of Toledo dying in 858, St. Eulogius was elected to 
succeed him ; but there was some obstacle that hindered 
him from being consecrated, though he did not outlive his 
election two months. A virgin, by name Leocritia, of a 
noble family among the Moors, had been instructed from 
her infancy in the Christian religion by one of her rela- 
tives, and privately baptized. Her father and mother used 
her very ill, and scourged her day and night to compel 
her to renounce the Faith. Having made her condition 
known to St. Eulogius and his sister Anulona, intimating 
that she desired to go where she might freely exercise her 
religion, they secretly procured her the means of getting 
away, and concealed her for some time among faithful 
friends. But the matter was at length discovered, and 
they were all brought before the cadi, who threatened to 
have Eulogius scourged to death. The Saint told him that 



MARCH 11.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



161 



his torments would "be of no avail, for he would never 
change his religion. Whereupon the cadi gave orders that he 
should be carried to the palace and be presented before the 
king's council. Eulogius began boldly to propose the truths 
of the Gospel to them. But, to prevent their hearing him, 
the council condemned him immediately to lose his head. 
As they were leading him to execution, one of the guards 
gave him a blow on the face for having spoken against 




Mahomet ; he turned the other cheek, and patiently re- 
ceived a second. He received the stroke of death with 
great cheerfulness, on the 11th of March, 859. St. Leo- 
critia was beheaded four days after him, and her body 
thrown into the river Guadalquivir, but taken out by the 
Christians. 

Reflection. — Beg of God, through the intercession of 
these holy martyrs, the gift of perseverance. Their ex- 
ample will supply you with an admirable rule for obtaining 
this crowning gift. Remember that you have renounced 
the world and the devil once for all at your Baptism. Do 



162 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 12. 



not hesitate ; do not look back ; do not listen to sugges- 
tions against faith or virtue ; but advance, day by day, 
along the road which you have chosen, to God, Who is your 
portion forever. 

March 12 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. 

aREGORY was a Roman of noble birth, and while still 
young was governor of Rome. On his father's death 
he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned his house on 
the Ccelian Hill into a monastery, which now bears his 
name, and for some years lived as a perfect monk. The 
Pope drew him from his seclusion to make him one of the 




seven deacons of Rome ; and he did great service to the 
Church for many years as what we now call Nuncio to the 
imperial court at Constantinople. "While still a monk the 
Saint was struck with some boys who were exposed for sale 
in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were pagans. 
"And of what race are they?" he asked. " They are 
Angles," "Worthy indeed to be Angels of God," said he. 



ma:rch 13.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



168 



u And of what province?" "Of Deira," was the reply. 
1 1 Truly must we rescue them from the wrath of God. And' 
what is the name of their king?" "He is called Ella." 
"It is well," said Gregory; "Alleluia must be sung in 
their land to God." He at once got leave from the Pope, 
and had set out to convert the English when the murmurs 
of the people led the Pope to recall him. Still the Angles 
were not forgotten, and one of the Saint's first cares as 
Pope was to send from his own monastery St. Augustine 
and other monks to England. On the death of Pope Pela- 
gius II., Gregory was compelled to take the government of 
the Church, and for fourteen years his pontificate was a per- 
fect model of ecclesiastical rule. He healed schisms ; re- 
vived discipline ; saved Italy by converting the wild Arian 
Lombards who were laying it waste ; aided in the conver- 
sion of the Spanish and French Goths, who were also 
Arians ; and kindled anew in Britain the light of the Faith, 
which the English had put out in blood. He set in order 
the Church's prayers and chant, guided and consoled her 
pastors with innumerable letters, and preached incessantly, 
most effectually by his own example. He died a.d. 604, 
worn out by austerities and toils ; and the Church reckons 
him one of her four great doctors, and reveres him as St. 
Gregory the Great. 

Reflection. — The champions of faith prove the truth of 
their teaching no less by the holiness of their lives than by 
the force of their arguments. Never forget that to convert 
others you must first see to your own soul. 

March 13.— ST. EUPHRASIA, Virgin. 

uPHRASiAwas the daughter of pious and noble parents. 
After the death of her father his widow withdrew 
privately with her little daughter into Egypt, where she was 
possessed of a very large estate. In that country she fixed 
her abode near a holy monastery of one hundred and thirty 




164 



Little pictorial 



[march 13. 



nuns. The young Euphrasia, at seven years of age, begged 
• that she might be permitted to serve God in this monas- 
tery. The pious mother on hearing this wept for joy, and 
not long after presented her child to the abbess, who, 
taking up an image of Christ, gave it to Euphrasia. The 
tender virgin kissed it, saying, "By vow I consecrate my- 
self to Christ." Then the mother led her before an image 
of Our Redeemer, and lifting up her hands to heaven said, 
"Lord Jesus Christ, receive this child under your special 
protection. You alone doth she love and seek : to you doth 




she recommend herself." Then leaving her in the hands 
of the abbess, she went out of the monastery weeping. 
Some time after this the good mother fell sick, and soon 
slept in peace. Upon the news of her death the Emperor 
Theodosius sent for the noble virgin to come to court, having 
promised her in marriage to a favorite young senator. But 
the virgin wrote him refusing the alliance, repeating her 
vow of virginity, and requesting that her estates should be 
sold and divided among the poor, and all her slaves set at 



MARCH 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



165 



liberty. The emperor punctually executed all she desired, 
a little before his death in 395. St. Euphrasia was a per- 
fect pattern of humility, meekness, and charity. If she 
found herself assaulted by any temptation, she immediately 
sought the advice of the abbess, who often enjoined her 
on such occasions some humbling and painful penitential 
labor, as sometimes to carry great stones from one place 
to another ; which employment she once, under an obsti- 
nate assault, continued thirty days together with wonderful 
simplicity, till the devil, being vanquished by her humble 
obedience and chastisement of her body, left her in peace. 
She was favored with miracles both before and after her 
death, which happened in the year 410, the thirtieth of her 
age. 



March 14 ST. MAUD, Queen. 

^^his princess was daughter of Theodoric, a powerful 
V-J Saxon count. Her parents placed her very young 
in the monastery of Erford, of which her grandmother 
Maud was then abbess. Our Saint remained in that house, 
an accomplished model of all virtues, till her parents mar- 
ried her to Henry, son of Otho, Duke of Saxony, in 913, 
who was afterwards chosen king of Germany. He was 
a pious and victorious prince, and very tender of his sub- 
jects. Whilst by his arms he' checked the insolence of the 
Hungarians and Danes, and enlarged his dominions by 
adding to them Bavaria, Maud gained domestic victories 
over her spiritual enemies more worthy of a Christian and 
far greater in the eyes of heaven. She nourished the 
precious seeds of devotion and humility in her heart by 
assiduous prayer and meditation. It was her delight to 
visit, comfort, and exhort the sick and the afflicted ; to 
serve and instruct the poor, and to afford her charitable 
succor to prisoners. Her husband, edified by her example, 
concurred with her in every pious undertaking which she 



166 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL 



[m AliCH 14. 



projected. After twenty-three years' marriage God was 
pleased to call the king to himself, in 936. Maud, during 
his sickness, went to the church to pour forth her soul in 
prayer for him at the foot of the altar. As soon as she 
understood, by the tears and cries of the people, that he 
had expired, she called for a priest that was fasting to offer 




the holy sacrifice for his soul. She had three sons : Otho, 
afterwards emperor ; Henry, Duke of Bavaria ; and St. 
Brunn, Archbishop of Cologne. Otho was crowned king 
of Germany in 937, and emperor at Kome in 962, after his 
victories over the Bohemians and Lombards. The two 
oldest sons conspired to strip Maud of her dowry, on the 
unjust pretence that she had squandered the revenues of 
the state on the poor. The unnatural princes at length 
repented of their injustice, and restored to her all that had 
been taken from her. She then became more liberal in her 
alms than ever, and founded many churches, with five 
monasteries. In her last sickness she made her confession 
to her grandson "William, the Archbishop of Mentz, who 
yet died twelve days before her, on his road home. She 



MARCH 15.] 



LIVES OF* THE SAINTS. 



167 



again made a public confession before the priests and 
monks of the place, received a second time the last sacra- 
ments, and, lying on a sack-cloth, with ashes on her head, 
died on the 14th of March in 968. 

Reflection. — The beginning of true virtue is most ar- 
dently to desire it, and to ask it of God with the utmost 
assiduity and earnestness. Fervent prayer, holy medita- 
tion, and reading pious books, are the principal means 
by which this virtue is to be constantly improved, and the 
interior life of the soul to be strengthened. 

March 15 ST. ZACHARY, Pope. 



^^t. Zachary succeeded Gregory III., in 741, and was a 
JF? man of singular meekness and goodness. He loved 
the clergy and people of Koine to that degree that he 




hazarded his life for them on occasion of the troubles 
which Italy fell into by the rebellion of the Dukes of 
Spoleto and Benevento against King Luitprand. Out of 



168 



little pictobial 



[march 16. 



respect to his sanctity and dignity, that king restored to 
the Church of Rome all the places which belonged to it, 
and sent back the captives without ransom. The Lom- 
bards were moved to tears at the devotion with which they 
heard him perform the divine service. The zeal and pru- 
dence of this holy Pope appeared in many wholesome 
regulations which he had made to reform or settle the 
discipline and peace of several churches. St. Boniface, the 
Apostle of Germany, wrote to him against a certain priest 
named Yirgilius, that he labored to sow the seeds of dis- 
cord between him and Odilo, Duke of Bavaria, and taught, 
besides, many errors. Zachary ordered that Yirgilius 
should be sent to Rome, that his doctrine might be ex- 
amined. It seems that he cleared himself ; for we find 
this same Yirgilius soon after made Bishop of Salzburg. 
Certain Yenetian merchants having bought at Rome many 
slaves to sell to the Moors in Africa, St. Zachary forbade 
such an iniquitous traffic, and, paying the merchants their 
price, gave the slaves their liberty. He adorned Rome with 
sacred buildings, and with great foundations in favor of 
the poor and pilgrims, and gave every year a considerable 
sum to furnish oil for the lamps in St. Peter's Church. He 
died in 752, in the month of March. 
• 

March 16.— STS. ABRAHAM and MARY. 

braham was a rich nobleman of Edessa. At his 
parents'desire he married, but escaped to a cell 
near the city as soon as the feast was over. He walled up 
the cell-door, leaving only a small window through which 
he received his food. There for fifty years he sang God's 
praises and implored mercy for himself and for all men. 
The wealth which fell to him on his parents' death he gave 
to the poor. As many sought him for advice and consola- 
tion, the Bishop of Edessa, in spite of his humility, or- 
dained him priest. St. Abraham was sent, soon after his 




MARCH 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



169 



ordination, to an idolatrous city which had hitherto been 
deaf to every messenger. He was insulted, beaten, and 
three times banished, but he returned each time with fresh 
zeal. For three years he pleaded with God for those souls, 
and in the end prevailed. Every citizen came to him for 
Baptism. After providing for their spiritual needs he 
went back to his cell more than ever convinced of the 
power of prayer. His brother died, leaving an only 
daughter, Mary, to the Saint's care. He placed her in a 




cell near his own, and devoted himself to training her in 
perfection. After twenty years of innocence she fell, and 
fled in despair to a distant city, where she drowned the 
voice of conscience in sin. The Saint and his friend St. 
Ephrem prayed earnestly for her during two years. Then 
he went disguised to seek the lost sheep, and had the joy 
of bringing her back to the desert a true penitent. She 
received the gift of miracles, and her countenance after 
death shone as the sun. St. Abraham died five years 
before her, about a.d. 360. All Edessa came for his last 
blessing and to secure his relics. 



170 



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[march 11. 



Reflection. — Oh, that we realized the omnipotence of 
prayer ! Every soul was created to glorify God eternally ; 
and it is in the power of every one to add by the salvation 
of his neighbor to the glory of God. Let us make good use 
of this talent of prayer, lest our brother's blood be required 
of us at the last . 

March 17.— ST. PATRICK, Bishop, Apostle of Ireland. 

If the virtue of children reflects an honor on their 
parents, much more justly is the name of St. Pat- 
rick rendered illustrious by the innumerable lights of 
sanctity with which the Church of Ireland shone during 
many ages, and by the colonies of Saints with which it 
peopled many foreign countries ; for, under God, its in- 
habitants derived from their glorious apostle the streams 
of that eminent sanctity by which they were long conspicu- 
ous to the whole world. St. Patrick was born towards the 
close of the fourth century, in a village called Bonaven 
Tabernise, which seems to be the town of Kilpatrick, on the 
mouth of the river Clyde, in Scotland, between Dumbarton 
and Glasgow. He calls himself both a Briton and a 
Roman, or of a mixed extraction, and says his father was 
of a good family named Calphurnius, and a denizen of a 
neighboring city of the Romans, who not long after 
abandoned Britain, in 409. Some writers call his mother 
Conchessa, and say she was niece to St. Martin of Tours. 

In his sixteenth year he was carried into captivity by 
certain barbarians, who took him into Ireland, where he 
was obliged to keep cattle on the mountains and in the 
forests, in hunger and nakedness, amidst snow, rain, and 
ice. Whilst he lived in this suffering condition, God had 
pity on his soul, and quickened him to a sense of his duty 
by the impulse of a strong interior grace. The young man 
had recourse to Him with his whole heart in fervent prayer 
and fasting ; and from that time faith and the love of 



MARCH 17 ] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



171 



God acquired continually new strength in his tender 
soul. After six months spent in slavery under the same 
master, St. Patrick was admonished by God in a dream 
to return to his own country, and informed that a ship 
was then ready to sail thither. He went at once to the 
sea-coast, though at a great distance, and found the vessel ; 
but could not obtain his passage, probably for want of 
money. The Saint returned towards his hut, praying as 
he went ; but the sailors, though pagans, called him back 




and took him on board. After three days' sail they made 
land, but wandered twenty-seven days through deserts, and 
were a long while distressed for want of provisions, find- 
ing nothing to eat. Patrick had often spoken to the com- 
pany on the infinite power of God ; they therefore asked 
him why he did not pray for relief. Animated by a strong 
faith, he assured them that if they would address them- 
selves with their whole hearts to the true God, He would 
hear and succor them. They did so, and on the same day 
met with a herd of swine. From that time provisions never 



172 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAHCH 17. 



failed them, till on the twenty-seventh day they came into 
a country that was cultivated and inhabited. 

Some years afterwards he was again led captive, but re- 
covered his liberty after two months. When he was at 
home with his parents, God manifested to him, by divers 
visions, that He destined him to the great work of the con- 
version of Ireland. The writers of his life say that after 
his second captivity he travelled into Gaul and Italy, and 
saw St. Martin, St. Germanus of Auxerre, and Pope Celes- 
tine, and that he received his mission and the apostolical 
benediction from this Pope, who died in 432. It is certain 
that he spent many years in preparing himself for his 
sacred calling. Great opposition was made against his 
episcopal consecration and mission, both by his own rela- 
tives and by the clergy. These made him great offers in 
order to detain him among them, and endeavored to 
affright him by exaggerating the dangers to which he ex- 
posed himself amidst the enemies of the Eomans and 
Britons, who did not know God. All these temptations 
threw the Saint into great perplexities ; but the Lord, 
Whose will he consulted by earnest prayer, supported him, 
and he persevered in his resolution. He forsook his family, 
sold his birthright and dignity, to serve strangers, and 
consecrated his soul to God, to carry His name to the ends 
of the earth. In this disposition he passed into Ireland, to 
preach the Gospel, where the worship of idols still gener- 
ally reigned. He devoted himself entirely to the salvation 
of these barbarians. He travelled over the whole island, 
penetrating into the remotest corners, and such was the 
fruit of his preachings and sufferings that he baptized an 
infinite number of people. He ordained everywhere clergy- 
men, induced women to live in holy widowhood and conti- 
nence, consecrated virgins to Christ, and instituted monks. 
He took nothing from the many thousands whom he bap- 
tized, and often gave back the little presents which some 
laid on the altar, choosing rather to mortify the fervent 



MARCH 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



173 



than to scandalize the weak or the infidels. He gave freely 
of his own, however, both to pagans and Christians, dis- 
tributed large alms to the poor in the provinces where he 
passed, made presents to the kings, judging that necessary 
for the progress of the Gospel, and maintained and educated 
many children, whom he trained up to serve at the altar. 
The happy success of his labors cost him many persecutions. 

A certain prince named Corotick, a Christian in name 
only, disturbed the peace of his flock. This tyrant, having 
made a descent into Ireland, plundered the country where 
St. Patrick had been just conferring confirmation on a 
great number of neophytes, who were yet in their white 
garments after Baptism. Corotick massacred many, and 
carried away others, whom he sold to the infidel Picts or 
Scots. The next day the Saint sent the barbarian a letter 
entreating him to restore the Christian captives, and at 
least part of the booty he had taken, that the poor people 
might not perish for want, but was only answered by 
railleries. The Saint, therefore, wrote with his own hand 
a letter. In it he styles himself a sinner and an ignorant 
man ; he declares, nevertheless, that he is established 
Bishop of Ireland, and pronounces Corotick and the other 
parricides and accomplices separated from him and from 
Jesus Christ, Whose place he holds, forbidding any to eat 
with them, or to receive their alms, till they should have 
satisfied God by the tears of sincere penance, and restored 
the servants of Jesus Christ to their liberty. This letter 
expresses his most tender love for his flock, and his grief 
for those who had been slain, yet mingled with joy be- 
cause they reign with the prophets, apostles, and martyrs. 
Jocelin assures us that Corotick was overtaken by the 
divine vengeance. 

St. Patrick held several councils to settle the discipline 
of the Church which he had planted. St. Bernard and the 
tradition of the country testify that St. Patrick fixed his 
metropolitan see at Armagh. He established some other 



174 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 17. 



bishops, as appears by his Council and other monuments. 
He not only converted the whole country by his preaching 
and wonderful miracles, but also cultivated this vineyard 
with so fruitful a benediction and increase from heaven as 
to render Ireland a most nourishing garden in the Church 
of God, and a country of Saints. 

Many particulars are related of the labors of St. Patrick, 
which we pass over. In the first year of his mission he 
attempted to preach Christ in the general assembly of the 
kings and states of all Ireland, held yearly at Tara, the 
residence of the chief king, styled the monarch of the whole 
island, and the principal seat of the Druids, or priests, and 
their paganish rites. The son of Neill, the chief monarch, 
declared himself against the preacher ; however, Patrick 
converted several, and, on his road to that place, the father 
of St. Benignus, his immediate successor in the see of 
Armagh. He afterwards converted and baptized the kings 
of Dublin and Munster, and the seven sons of the king of 
Connaught, with the greatest part of their subjects, and 
before his death almost the whole island. He founded a 
monastery at Armagh ; another called Domnach-Padraig, 
or Patrick's Church ; also a third, named Sabhal-Padraig ; 
and filled the country with churches and schools of piety 
and learning, the reputation of which, for the three succeed- 
ing centuries, drew many foreigners into Ireland. He died 
and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body was found 
there in a church of his name in 1185, and translated to 
another part of the same church. 

Ireland is the nursery whence St. Patrick sent forth his 
missionaries and teachers. Glastonbury and Lindisfarne, 
Ripon and Malmesbury, bear testimony to the labors of 
Irish priests and bishops for the conversion of England, 
lona is to this day the most venerated spot in Scotland. 
Columban, Fiacre, Gall, and many others evangelized the 
"rough places" of France and Switzerland. America 
and Australia, in modern times, owe their Christianity to 



MAKCH 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



175 



the faith and zeal of the sons and daughters of St. 
Patrick. 

Reflection. — By the instrumentality of St. Patrick the 
Faith is now as fresh in Ireland, even in this cold nineteenth 
century, as when it was first planted. Ask him to obtain 
for you the special grace of his children — to prefer the loss 
of every earthly good to the least compromise in matters 
of faith. 

March 18. — ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM. 



aYRiL was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about 
the year 315. He was ordained priest by St. Maxi- 
mus, who gave him the important charge of instructing 




and preparing the candidates for Baptism. This charge he 
held for several years, and we still have one series of his 
instructions, given in the year 347 or 348. They are of 
singular interest as being the earliest record of the system- 
atic teaching of the Church on the creed and sacraments, 
and as having been given in the church built by Constan- 



176 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 18. 



tine on Mount Calvary. They are solid, simple, profound ; 
saturated with Holy Scripture ; exact, precise, and terse ; 
and, as a witness and exposition of the Catholic faith, in- 
valuable. On the death of St. Maximus, Cyril was chosen 
Bishop of Jerusalem. At the beginning of his episcopate a 
cross was seen in the air reaching from Mount Calvary to 
Mount Olivet, and so bright that it shone at noonday. St. 
Cyril gave an account of it to the emperor ; and the faith- 
ful regarded it as a presage of victory over the Arian her- 
etics. While Cyril was bishop, the apostate Julian resolved 
to falsify the words of Our Lord by rebuilding the Temple 
at Jerusalem. He employed the power and resources of 
a Koman emperor ; the Jews thronged enthusiastically to 
him and gave munificently. But Cyril was unmoved. 
" The word of God abides," he said ; " one stone shall not 
be laid on another." When the attempt was made, a 
heathen writer tells us that horrible flames came forth from 
the earth, rendering the place inaccessible to the scorched 
and scared workmen. The attempt was made again and 
again, and then abandoned in despair. Soon after, the 
emperor perished miserably in a war against the Persians, 
and the Church had rest. Like the other great bishops of 
his time, Cyril was persecuted, and driven once and again 
from his see ; but on the death of the Arian Emperor 
Valens he returned to Jerusalem. He was present at the 
second General Council at Constantinople, and died in 
peace a.d. 386, after a troubled episcopate of thirty-five 
years. 

Reflection. — "As a stout staff," says St. John Chrysos- 
tom, "supports the trembling limbs of a feeble old man, 
so does faith sustain our vacillating mind, lest it be tossed 
about by sinful hesitation and perplexity." 



MARCH 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



177 



March 19. — ST. JOSEPH, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin 
and Patron of the Universal Church. 

C^ t. Joseph was by birth of the royal family of David, 
but was living in humble obscurity as a carpenter 
when God raised him to the highest sanctity, and fitted him 
to be the spouse of His Virgin Mother, and foster-father 
and guardian of the Incarnate Word. Joseph, says the 
Holy Scripture, was a just man ; he was innocent and pure, 
as became the husband of Mary ; he w T as gentle and tender, 




as one worthy to be named the father of Jesus ; he was 
prudent and a lover of silence, as became the master of 
the holy house ; above all, he was faithful and obedient to 
divine calls. His conversation was with angels rather 
than with men. When he learned that Mary bore within 
her womb the Lord of heaven, he feared to take her as 
his wife ; but an angel bade him fear not, and all doubts 
vanished. When Herod sought the life of the divine In- 
fant, an angel told Joseph in a dream to fly- with the Child 
and His Mother into Egypt. Joseph at once arose and 



178 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 19. 



obeyed. This sudden and unexpected flight must have 
exposed Joseph to many inconveniences and sufferings in 
so long a journey with a little babe and a tender virgin, the 
greater part of the way being through deserts and among 
strangers ; yet he alleges no excuses, nor inquires at what 
time they were to return. St. Chrysostom observes that 
God treats thus all His servants, sending them frequent 
trials to clear their hearts from the rust of self-love, but 
intermixing seasons of consolation. "Joseph," says he, 
" is anxious on seeing the Virgin with child ; an angel re- 
moves that fear. He rejoices at the Child's birth, but a 
great fear succeeds : the furious king seeks to destroy the 
Child, and the whole city is in an uproar to take away His 
life. This is followed by another joy, the adoration of the 
Magi ; a new sorrow then arises : he is ordered to fly into 
a foreign unknown country, without help or acquaintance." 
It is the opinion of the Fathers that upon their entering 
Egypt, at the presence of the child Jesus, all the oracles of 
that superstitious country were struck dumb, and the 
statues of their gods trembled and in many places fell to 
the ground. The Fathers also attribute to this holy visit 
the spiritual benediction poured on that country, which 
made it for many ages most fruitful in Saints. After the 
death of King Herod, of which St. Joseph was informed in 
another vision, God ordered him to return with the Child and 
His Mother into the land of Israel, which our Saint readily 
obeyed. But when he arrived in Judea, hearing that Ar- 
chelaus had succeeded Herod in that part of the country, 
and apprehensive that he might be infected with his father's 
vices, he feared on that account to settle there, as he would 
otherwise probably have done for the education of the 
Child ; and therefore, being directed by God in another 
vision, he retired into the dominions of Herod Antipas, in 
Galilee, to his former habitation in Nazareth. St. Joseph, 
being a strict observer of the Mosaic law, in conformity to 
its direction annually repaired to Jerusalem to celebrate 



MakCh 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



170 



the Passover. Our Saviour, now in the twelfth year of His 
age, accompanied His parents thither. Having performed 
the usual ceremonies of the feast, they were returning with 
many of their neighbors and acquaintance towards Galilee ; 
and never doubting but that Jesus was with some of the 
company, they travelled on for a whole day's journey before 
they discovered that He was not with them. But when 
night came on and they could hear no tidings of Him 
among their kindred and acquaintance, they, in the deep- 
est affliction, returned Avith the utmost speed to Jerusalem. 
After an anxious search of three days they found Him in 
the Temple, discoursing with the learned doctors of the law, 
and asking them such questions as raised the admiration of 
all that heard Him, and made them astonished at the ripe- 
ness of His understanding ; nor were His parents less sur- 
prised on this occasion. When His Mother told Him with 
what grief and earnestness they had sought Him, and 
asked, "Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? behold 
Thy Father and I sought Thee in great affliction of mind," 
she received for answer, " How is it that you sought Me ? 
did you not know that I must be about My Father's busi- 
ness ? " But though thus staying in the Temple unknown to 
His parents, in all other things He was obedient to them, 
returning with them to Nazareth, and there living in all 
dutiful subjection to them. As no further mention is 
made of St. Joseph, he must have died before the marriage 
of Cana and the beginning of our divine Saviour's minis- 
try. We cannot doubt that he had the happiness of Jesus 
and Mary attending at his death, praying by him, assisting 
and comforting him in his last moments ; whence he is 
particularly invoked for the great grace of a happy death 
and the spiritual presence of Jesus in that hour. 

Reflection. — St. Joseph, the shadow of the Eternal Father 
upon earth, the protector of Jesus in His home at Nazareth, 
and a lover of all children for the sake of the Holy Child, 



180 



LlfTLES PICTORIAL 



[march 20. 



should be the chosen guardian and pattern of every true 
Christian family. 

March 20.— ST. WULFRAN, Archbishop. 

Kis father was an officer in the armies of King Dago- 
bert, and the Saint spent some years in the court 
of King Clotaire III. and of his mother, St. Bathildes, but 
occupied his heart only on God, despising worldly great- 
ness as empty and dangerous, and daily advancing in 




virtue. His estate of Maurilly he bestowed on the Abbey of 
Fontenelle, or St. Vandrille, in Normandy. He was chosen 
and consecrated Archbishop of Sens in 682, which diocese 
he governed two years and a half with great zeal and sanc- 
tity. A tender compassion for the blindness of the idola- 
ters of Friesland, and the example of the English zealous 
preachers in those parts, moved him to resign his bishopric, 
with proper advice, and after a retreat at Fontenelle to 
enter Friesland in quality of a poor missionary priest. He 
baptized great multitudes, among them a son of King Had- 



MABCH 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



181 



bod, and drew the people from the barbarous custom of 
sacrificing men to idols. On a certain occasion, one Ovon 
having been selected as a victim of a sacrifice to the 
heathen gods, St. Wulfran earnestly begged his life of King 
Radbod ; but the people ran tumultuously to the palace, 
and would not suffer what they called a sacrilege. After 
many words they consented, but on condition that Wul- 
fran's God should save Ovon's life. The Saint betook him- 
self to prayer : the man, after hanging on the gibbet two 
hours, and being left for dead, fell to the ground by the 
breaking of the cord ; being found alive he was given to 
the Saint, and became a monk and priest at Fontenelle. 
Wulfran also miraculously rescued two children from being 
drowned in honor of the idols. Radbod, who had been an 
eye-witness to this last miracle, promised to become a 
Christian ; but as he was going to step into the baptismal 
font he asked where the great number of his ancestors and 
nobles were in the next world. The Saint replied that hell 
is the portion of all who die guilty of idolatry ; at which 
the prince refused to be baptized, saying he would go with 
the greater number. This tyrant sent afterwards to St, 
Willibrord to treat with him about his conversion, but 
before the arrival of the Saint was found dead. St. Wul- 
fran retired to Fontenelle that he might prepare himself 
for death, and expired there on the 20th of April, 720. 

Reflection. — In every age the Catholic Church is a mis- 
sionary church. She has received the world for her in- 
heritance, and in our own days many missioners have 
watered with their blood the lands in which they labored. 
Help the propagation of the faith by alms, and above all 
by prayers. You will quicken your own faith and gain 
a part in the merits of the glorious apostolate. 



182 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[march 21. 




March 21.— ST. BENEDICT, Abbot. 

t. Benedict, blessed by grace and in name, was born 
)^ of a noble Italian family about 480. When a boy he 
was sent to Eome, and there placed in the public schools. 
Scared by the licentiousness of the Roman youth, he fled to 
the desert mountains of Subiaco, and was directed by the 
Holy Spirit into a cave, deep, craggy, and almost inaccessi- 
ble. He lived there for three years, unknown to any one 
save the holy monk Romanus, who clothed him with the 
monastic habit and brought him food. But the fame of 
his sanctity soon gathered disciples round him. The rigor 
of his rule, however, drew on him the hatred of some of 
the monks, and one of them mixed poison with the abbot's 
drink ; but when the Saint made the sign of the cross on 
the poisoned bowl, it broke and fell in pieces to the ground. 
After he had built twelve monasteries at Subiaco, he re- 
moved to Monte Casino, where he founded an abbey in 
which he wrote his rule and lived until death. By prayer 
he did all things : wrought miracles, saw visions, and 



March &2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



183 



prophesied. A peasant, whose boy had just died, ran in 
anguish to St. Benedict, crying out, u Give me back my 
son ! " The monks joined the poor man in his entreaties ; 
but the Saint replied, "Such miracles are not for us to 
work, but for the blessed apostles. Why will you lay 
upon me a burden which my weakness cannot bear?" 
Moved at length by compassion he knelt down and, pros- 
trating himself upon the body of the child, prayed earnestly. 
Then rising, he cried out, " Behold not, O Lord, my sins, 
but the faith of this man, who desireth the life of his son, 
and restore to the body that soul which Thou hast taken 
away." Hardly had he spoken when the child's body 
began to tremble, and taking it by the hand he restored it 
alive to its father. Six days before his death he ordered 
his grave to be opened, and fell ill of a fever. On the sixth 
day he requested to be borne into the chapel, and, having 
received the body and blood of Christ, with hands up- 
lifted, and leaning on one of his disciples, he calmly ex- 
pired in prayer on the 21st of March, 543. 

Reflection. — The Saints never feared to undertake any 
work, however arduous, for God, because, distrusting self, 
they relied for assistance and support wholly upon prayer. 

March 22.— ST. CATHARINE OF SWEDEN, Virgin. 

t. Catharine was daughter of Ulpho, Prince of Neri- 
cia in Sweden, and of St. Bridget. The love of God 
seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her reason. At 
seven years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Ris- 
burgh, and educated in piety under the care of the holy 
abbess of that house. Being very beautiful, she was, by 
her father, contracted in marriage to Egard, a young noble- 
man of great virtue ; but the virgin persuaded him to join 
with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. 
By her discourses he became desirous only of heavenly 
graces, and, to draw them down upon his soul more abun- 




184 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 22. 



dantly, he readily acquiesced in the proposal. The happy 
couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a holy 
emulation excited each other to prayer, mortification, and 
works of charity. After the death of her father, St. Catha- 
rine, out of devotion to the Passion of Christ and to the 
relics of the martyrs, accompanied her mother in her 
pilgrimages aud practices of devotion and penance. After 
her mother's death at Rome, in 1373, Catharine returned to 




Sweden, and died abbess of Yadzstena, or Vatzen, on the 
24th of March in 1381. For the last twenty-five years of 
her life she every day purified her soul by a sacramental 
confession of her sins. 



Reflection.— Whoever has to dwell in the world stands 
in need of great prudence ; the Holy Scripture itself assures 
us that " the knowledge of the holy is prudence." 



MAHCH 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



185 



March 23 STS. VICTORIAN AND OTHERS, Martyrs. 

uneric, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, 
succeeded his father Genseric in 477. He behaved 
himself at first with moderation towards the Catholics, but 
in 480 he began a grievous persecution of the clergy and 
holy virgins, which in 484 became general, and vast 
numbers of Catholics were put to death. Victorian, one 
of the principal lords of the kingdom, had been made 
governor of Carthage, with the Roman title of Proconsul. 
He was the wealthiest subject of the king, who placed great 
confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an in- 
violable fidelity. The king, after he had published his 
cruel edicts, sent a message to the proconsul, promising, if 
he would conform to his religion, to heap on him the 
greatest wealth and the highest honors which it was in the 
power of a prince to bestow. The proconsul, who amidst 
the glittering pomps of the world perfectly understood its 
emptiness, made this generous answer: 44 Tell the king 
that I trust in Christ. His Majesty may condemn me to 
any torments, but I shall never consent to renounce the 
Catholic Church, in which I have been baptized. Even if 
there were no life after this, I would never be ungrateful 
and perfidious to God, Who has granted me the happiness 
of knowing Him, and bestowed on me His most precious 
graces." The tyrant became furious at this answer, nor 
can the tortures be imagined which he caused the Saint to 
endure. Victorian suffered them with joy, and amidst 
them finished his glorious martyrdom. The Roman Mar- 
tyrology joins with him on this day four others who were 
crowned in the same persecution. Two brothers, who were 
apprehended for the faith, had promised each other, if 
possible, to die together ; and they begged of God, as a 
favor, that they might both suffer the same torments. The 
persecutors hung them in the air with great weights at their 
feet. One of them, under the excess of pain, begged to be 




186 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 



taken down for a little ease. His brother, fearing that 
this might move him to deny his faith, cried out from the 
rack, ' ' God forbid, dear brother, that you should ask such 
a thing. Is this what we promised to Jesus Christ ? " The 
other was so wonderfully encouraged that he cried out, 
1 4 No, no ; I ask not to be released ; increase my tortures, 
exert all your cruelties till they are exhausted upon me." 
They were then burned with red-hot plates of iron, and tor- 
mented so long that the executioners at last left them, say- 
ing, " Everybody follows their example ; no one now em- 




braces our religion.' 1 This they said chiefly because, notwith- 
standing these brothers had been so long and so grievously 
tormented, there were no scars or bruises to be seen upon 
them. Two merchants of Carthage, who both bore the 
name of Frumentius, suffered martyrdom about the same 
time. Among many glorious confessors at that time, one 
Liberatus, an eminent physician, was sent into banishment 
with his wife. He only grieved to see his infant children 
torn from him. His wife checked his tears by these words : 
" Think no more of them : Jesus Christ Himself will have 



MARCH 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



187 



care of them and protect their souls." Whilst in prison she 
was told that her husband had conformed. Accordingly, 
when she met him at the bar before the judge, she up- 
braided him in open court for having basely abandoned 
God ; but discovered by his answer that a cheat had been 
put upon her to deceive her into her ruin. Twelve young 
children, when dragged away by the persecutors, held their 
companions by the knees till they were torn away by vio- 
lence. They were most cruelly beaten and scourged every 
day for a long time ; yet by God's grace every one of them 
persevered to the end of the persecution firm in the faith. 

March 24 ST. SIMON, Infant Martyr. 

ail, flowers of the martyrs ! " the Church sings in 
her Office of the Holy Innocents, who were the first 
to die for Christ ; and in every age mere children and 
infants have gloriously confessed His name. In 1472 the 
Jews in the city of Trent determined to vent their hate 
against the Crucified by slaying a Christian child at the 
coming Passover ; ,and Tobias, one of their number, was 
deputed to entrap a victim. He found a bright, smiling 
boy named Simon playing outside his home, with no one 
guarding him. Tobias patted the little fellow's cheek, and 
coaxed him to take his hand. The boy, who was not two 
years old, did so ; but he began to call and cry for his 
mother when he found himself being led from home. Then 
Tobias gave him a bright coin to look at, and with many 
kind caresses silenced his grief, arid conducted him securely 
to his house. At midnight on Holy Thursday the work of 
butchery began. Having gagged his mouth, they held his 
arms in the form of a cross, while they pierced his tender 
body with awls and bodkins in blasphemous mockery of the 
sufferings of Jesus Christ. After an hour's torture the 
little martyr lifted his eyes to heaven and gave up his in- 
nocent soul. The Jews cast his body into the river ; but 




188 



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[MARCH 24.. 



their crime was discovered and punished, while the holy 
relics were enshrined in St. Peter's Church at Trent, where 
they have worked many miracles. 

William of Norwich is another of these children mar- 
tyrs. His parents were simple country folk, but his mother 
was taught by a vision to expect a Saint in her son. As a 
boy he fasted thrice a week and prayed constantly, and he 
was only an apprentice twelve years of age, at a tanner's 
in Norwich, when he w T on his crown. A little before Easter, 




a.d. 1137, he was enticed into a Jew's house, and was there 
gagged, bound, and crucified in hatred of Christ. Five 
years passed before the body was found, when it was 
buried as a saintly relic in the cathedral churchyard. A 
rose-tree planted hard by flowered miraculously in mid- 
winter, and all manner of sick persons were healed of their 
diseases at St. William's shrine. 

Reflection.— Learn from the infant martyrs that, how- 
ever weak you may be, you still can suffer for Christ's sake, 
and, by suffering, win your crown. 



MARCH 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



189 



March 25 THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED 

VIRGIN MARY. 

^J^ms great festival takes its name from the happy fid- 
s' - ^ ings brought by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed 
Virgin, concerning the Incarnation of the Son of God. It 
commemorates the most important embassy that was ever 
known : an embassy sent by the King of kings, performed 
by one of the chief princes of His heavenly court ; directed, 
not to the great ones of this earth, but to a poor, unknown 
virgin, who, being endowed with the most angelic purity 
of soul and body, being withal perfectly humble and de- 
voted to God, was greater in His eyes than the mightiest 
monarch in the world. When the Son of God became man, 
He could have taken upon Him our nature without the co- 
operation of any creature ; but He was pleased to be born 
of a woman. In the choice of her whom He raised to this 
most sublime of all dignities, He pitched upon the one who, 
by the riches of His grace and virtues, was of all others the 
most holy and the most perfect. The design of this em- 
bassy of the archangel is to give a Saviour to the world, a 
victim of propitiation to the sinner, a model to the just, a 
son to this Virgin, remaining still a virgin, and a new 
nature to the Son of God, the nature of man, capable of 
suffering pain and anguish in order to satisfy God's justice 
for our transgressions. 

When the angel appeared to Mary and addressed her, 
the Blessed Virgin was troubled : not at the angel's appear- 
ance, says St. Ambrose, for heavenly visions and a com- 
merce with the blessed spirits had been familiar to her ; 
but what alarmed her, he says, was the angel's appearing 
in human form, in the shape of a young man. What 
might add to her fright on the occasion was his address- 
ing her in words of praise. Mary, guarded by her modesty, 
is in confusion at expressions of this sort, and dreads the 
least appearance of deluding flattery. Such high commen- 



190 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 25. 



dations make her cautious how she answers, till in silence 
she has more fully considered of the matter: " She re- 
volved in her mind," says St. Luke, " what manner of 
salutation this should be." Ah, what numbers of inno- 
cent souls have been corrupted for want of using the like 
precautions ! 

The angel, to calm her, says : " Fear not, Mary, for thou 
hast found favor before God." He then informs her that 




she is to conceive and bring forth a Son Whose name shall 
be Jesus, Who shall be great, and the Son of the Most High, 
and possessed of the throne of David, her illustrious an- 
cestor. Mary, out of a just concern to know how she may 
comply with the will of God without prejudice to her vow 
of virginity, inquires, " How shall this be ? " Nor does she 
give her consent till the heavenly messenger acquaints her 
that it is to be a work of the Holy Ghost, Who, in making 
her fruitful, will not intrench in the least upon her virginal 
purity. 

In submission, therefore, to God's will, without any fur- 



MARCH 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



191 



ther inquiries, she expresses her assent in these humble but 
powerful words : " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it 
done to me according to Thy word." What faith and con- 
fidence does her answer express ! what profound humility 
and perfect obedience ! 

Reflection. — From the example of the Blessed Virgin in 
this mystery, how ardent a love ought we to conceive of 
purity and humility ! The Holy Ghost is invited by purity 
to dwell in souls, but is chased away by the filth of the con- 
trary vice. Humility is the foundation of a spiritual life. 
By it Mary was prepared for the extraordinary graces and 
all virtues with which she was enriched, and for the emi- 
nent dignity of Mother of God. 

March 26.— ST. LUDGER, Bishop. 

T. Ludger was born in Friesland about the year 743. 
His father, a nobleman of the first rank, at the 
child's own request, committed him very young to the care 
of St. Gregory, the disciple of St. Boniface, and his suc- 
cessor in the government of the see of Utrecht. Gregory 
educated him in his monastery and gave him the clerical 
tonsure. Ludger, desirous of further improvement, passed 
over into England, and spent four years and a half under 
Alcuin, who was rector of a famous school at York. In 
773 he returned home, and St. Gregory dying in 776, his 
successor, Alberic, compelled our Saint to receive the holy 
order of priesthood, and employed him for several years in 
preaching the Word of God in Friesland, where he con- 
verted great numbers, founded several monasteries, and 
built many churches. The pagan Saxons ravaging the 
country, Ludger travelled to Eome to consult Pope Adrian 
II. what course to take, and what he thought God required 
of him. He then retired for three years and a half to 
Monte Casino, where he wore the habit of the Order and 
conformed to the practice of the rule during his stay, but 




192 LITTLE PICTORIAL [MARCH 26. 

made no religious vows. In 787, Charlemagne overcame 
the Saxons and conquered Friesland and the coast of the 
Germanic Ocean as far as Denmark. Ludger, hearing this, 
returned into East Friesland, where he converted the 
Saxons to the Faith, as he also did the province of West- 
phalia. He founded the monastery of Werden, twenty- 
nine miles from Cologne. In 802, Hildebald, Archbishop 
of Cologne, not regarding his strenuous resistance, ordained 




him Bishop of Munster. He joined in his diocese five can- 
tons of Friesland which he had converted, and also 
founded the monastery of Helmstad in the duchy of 
Brunswick. 

Being accused to the Emperor Charlemagne of wasting 
his income and neglecting the embellishment of churches, 
this prince ordered him to appear at court. The morning 
after his arrival the emperor's chamberlain brought him 
word that his attendance was required. The Saint, being 
then at his prayers, told the officer that he would follow 
him as soon as he had finished them. He was sent for 
three several times before he was ready, which the cour- 



MARCH 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



198 



tiers represented as a contempt of his Majesty, and the em- 
peror, with some emotion, asked him why he had made 
him wait so long, though he had sent for him so often. The 
bishop answered that though he had the most profound 
respect for his Majesty, yet God was infinitely above him ; 
that whilst we are occupied with Him, it is our duty to 
forget everything else. This answer made such an im- 
pression on the emperor that he dismissed him with honor 
and disgraced his accusers. St. Ludger was favored with 
the gifts of miracles and prophecy. His last sickness, 
though violent, did not hinder him from continuing his 
functions to the very last day of his life, which was Pas- 
sion Sunday, on which day he preached very early in the 
morning, said Mass towards nine, and preached again 
before night, foretelling to those that were about him that 
he should die the following night, and fixing upon a place 
in his monastery of Werden where he chose to be interred. 
He died accordingly on the 26th of March, at midnight. 

Reflection. — Prayer is an action so sublime and super- 
natural that the Church in her Canonical Hours teaches us 
to begin it by a fervent petition of grace to perform it well. 
What an insolence and mockery is it to join with this 
petition an open disrespect and a neglect of all necessary 
precautions against distractions ! We ought never to ap- 
pear before God, to tender Him our homages or supplica- 
tions, without trembling, and without being deaf to all 
creatures and shutting all our senses to every object that 
can distract our minds from God. 

March 27.— ST. JOHN OF EGYPT. 

ill he was twenty-five, John worked as a carpenter 
with his father. Then feeling a call from God, he 
left the world and committed himself to a holy solitary in 
the desert. His master tried his spirit by many unreason- 
able commands, bidding him roll the hard rocks, tend 



194 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[march 27. 



dead trees, and the like. John obeyed in all things with 
the simplicity of a child. After a careful training of six- 
teen years he withdrew to the top of a steep cliff to 
think only of God and his soul. The more he knew 
of himself, the more he distrusted himself. For the 
last fifty years, therefore, he never saw women, and 




seldom men. The result of this vigilance and purity was 
threefold : a holy joy and cheerfulness which consoled all 
who conversed with him ; perfect obedience to superiors ; 
and, in return for this, authority over creatures, whom he 
had forsaken for the Creator. St. Augustine tells us of his 
appearing in a vision to a holy woman, whose sight he had 
restored, to avoid seeing her face to face. Devils assailed 
him continually, but John never ceased his prayer. From 
his long communings with God, he turned to men with 
gifts of healing and prophecy. Twice each week he spoke 
through a window with those who came to him, blessing oil 
for their sick and predicting things to come. A deacon 
came to him in disguise, and he reverently kissed his hand. 
To the Emperor Theodosius he foretold his future victories 



MARCH 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



195 



and the time of his death. The three last days of his life 
John gave wholly to God : on the third he was found on 
his knees as if in prayer, but his soul was with the blessed. 
He died a.d. 394. 

Reflection. — The Saints examine themselves by the per- 
fections of God, and do penance. AYe judge our conduct 
by the standard of other men, and rest satisfied with it. 
Yet it is by the divine holiness alone that we shall be judged 
when we die. 

March 28 ST. GONTRAN, King. 

T. Gontran was son of King Clotaire, and grandson of 
Clovis I. and St. Clotildis. Being the second son, 
whilst his brothers Charibert reigned at Paris, and Sige- 
bert in Ostrasia, residing at Metz, he was crowned king of 
Orleans and Burgundy in 561, making Chalons his capital. 
When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious 
brothers and the Lombards, he made no other use of his 
victories, under the conduct of a brave general called 
Mommol, than to give peace to his dominions. The crimes 
in which the barbarous manners of his nation involved 
him he effaced by tears of repentance. The prosperity of 
his reign, both in peace and war, condemns those who 
think that human policy cannot be modelled by the maxims 
of the Gospel, whereas nothing can render a government 
more flourishing. He always treated the pastors of the 
Church with respect and veneration. He was the protector 
of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his subjects. He 
gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. He 
fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and 
day as a victim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of His 
justice, to avert His indignation which he believed he him- 
self had provoked and drawn clown upon his innocent 
people. He was a severe punish er of crimes in his officers 
and others, and, by many wholesome regulations, re- 




196 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 29. 



strained the barbarous licentiousness of his troops ; but no 
man was more ready to forgive offences against his own 
person. With royal magnificence he built and endowed 




many churches and monasteries. This good king died on 
the 23rd of March in 593, in the sixty-eighth year of his 
age, having reigned thirty-one years and some months. 

Reflection. — There is no means of salvation more relia- 
ble than the practice of mercy, since Our Lord has said it : 
" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall find mercy." 



March 29 STS. JONAS, BARACHISIUS, and their 

Companions, Martyrs. 

King Sapor, of Persia, in the eighteenth year of his 
reign, raised a bloody persecution against the Chris- 
tians, and laid waste their churches and monasteries. 
Jonas and Barachisius, two brothers of the city Beth- Asa, 
hearing that several Christians lay under sentence of death 
at Hubaham, went thither to encourage and serve them. 
Nine of that number received the crown of martyrdom. 



MARCH 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



m 



After their execution, Jonas and Barachisius were appre- 
hended for having exhorted them to die. The president 
entreated the two brothers to obey the king of Persia, and 
to worship the sun, moon, fire, and water. Their answer 
was, that it was more reasonable to obey the immortal King 
of heaven and earth than a mortal prince. Jonas was 
beaten with knotty clubs and with, rods, and next set in a 
frozen pond, with a cord tied to his foot. Barachisius had 
two red-hot iron plates and two red-hot hammers applied 
under each arm, and melted lead dropped into his nostrils 
and eyes ; after which he was carried to prison, and there 
hung up by one foot. Despite these cruel tortures, the 
two brothers remained steadfast in the Faith. New and 
more horrible torments were then devised under which at 




last they yielded up their lives, while their pure souls 
winged their flight to heaven, there to gain the martyr's 
crown, which they had so faithfully won. 

Reflection. — Those powerful motives which supported the 
martyrs under the sharpest torments ought to inspire us 



108 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[march 80. 



with patience, resignation, and holy joy under sickness and 
all crosses or trials. Nothing is more heroic in the practice 
of Christian virtue, nothing more precious in the sight of 
God, than the sacrifice of patience, submission, constant 
fidelity, and charity in a state of suffering. 

March 30.— ST. JOHN CLIMACUS. 



JVohn made, while still young, such progress in learning 
c) that he was called the Scholastic. At the age of 
sixteen he turned from the brilliant future which lay 




before him, and retired to Mt. Sinai, where he put himself 
under the direction of a holy monk. Never was novice 
more fervent, more unrelaxing in his efforts for self- 
mastery. After four years he took the vows, and an aged 
abbot foretold that he would some day be one of the great- 
est lights of the Church. Nineteen years later, on the 
death of his director, he withdrew into a deeper solitude, 
where he studied the lives and writings of the Saints, and 
was raised to an unusual height of contemplation. The 



MARCH 31.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



199 



fame of bis holiness and practical wisdom drew crowds 
around him for advice and consolation. For his greater 
profit he visited the solitudes of Egypt. At the age of 
seventy-five he was chosen abbot of Mt. Sinai, and there 
u he dwelt in the mount of God, and drew from the rich 
treasure of his heart priceless riches of doctrine, which he 
poured forth with wondrous abundance and benediction." 
He was induced by a brother abbot to write the rules by 
which he had guided his life ; and his book called the 
Climax, or Ladder of Perfection, has been prized in all 
ages for its wisdom, its clearness, and its unction. At the 
end of four years he would no longer endure the honors 
and distractions of his office, and retired to his solitude, 
where he died a.d. 605. 

Reflection.—'' Cast not from thee, my brother," says the 
Imitation of Christ, i 1 the sure hope of attaining to the 
spiritual life ; still hast thou the time and the means." 

March 31.— ST. BENJAMIN, Deacon, Martyr. 

Isdegerdes, son of Sapor III., put a stop to the cruel 
persecutions against the Christians in Persia, which 
had been begun by Sapor II. , and the Church had enjoyed 
twelve years' peace in that kingdom, when in 420 it was 
disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of Abdas, a Christian 
bishop, who burned down the Pyraeum, or Temple of Fire, 
the great divinity of the Persians. King Isdegerdes 
thereupon demolished all the Christian churches in Persia, 
put to death Abdas, and raised a general persecution 
against the Church, which continued forty years with great 
fury. Isdegerdes died the year following, in 421. But his 
son and successor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with 
greater inhumanity. The very recital of the cruelties he 
exercised on the Christians strikes us with horror. Among 
the glorious champions of Christ was St, Benjamin, a 
deacon. The tyrant caused him 'to be beaten and im- 



200 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MARCH 31. 



prisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when an 
ambassador from the emperor obtained his release on condi- 
tion that he should never speak to any of the courtiers about 




religion. The ambassador passed his word in his behalf 
that he would not ; but Benjamin, who was a minister of 
the Gospel, declared that he should miss no opportunity of 
announcing Christ. The king, being informed that he still 
preached the Faith in his kingdom, ordered him to be ap- 
prehended, caused reeds to be run in between the nails and 
the flesh, both of his hands and feet, and to be thrust into 
other most tender parts, and drawn out again, and this 
to be frequently repeated with violence. Lastly, a knotty 
stake was thrust into his bowels, to rend and tear them, in 
which torment he expired in the year 424. 

Reflection. — We entreat you, 0 most holy martyrs, who 
cheerfully suffered most cruel torments for God our Saviour 
and His love, on which account you are now most inti- 
mately and familiarly united to Him, that you pray to the 
Lord for us miserable sinners, covered with filth, that He 



APRIL 1.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



201 



infuse into us the grace of Christ, that it may enlighten 
our souls that we may love Him. 

April 1. — ST. HUGH, Bishop. 

IT was the happiness of this Saint to receive from his 
cradle the strongest impressions of piety by the 
example and care of his illustrious and holy parents. He 
was born at Chateau-neuf, in the territory of Valence 
in Dauphine, in 1053. His father, Odilo, who served his 
country in an honorable post in the army, labored by all 
the means in his power to make his soldiers faithful ser- 
vants of their Creator, and by severe punishments to re- 
strain vice. By the advice of his son, St. Hugh, he after- 
wards became a Carthusian monk, and died at the age of 




a hundred, having received Extreme Unction and Viaticum 
from the hands of his son. Oar Saint likewise assisted, in 
her last moments, his mother, who had for many years, 
under his direction, served God in her own house, by 
prayer, fasting, and plenteous alms-deeds. Hugh, from the 



202 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 1. 



cradle, appeared to be a child of benediction. He went 
through his studies with great applause, and having chosen 
to serve God in an ecclesiastical state, he accepted a 
canonry in the cathedral of Valence. His great sanctity 
and learning rendered him an ornament of that church, 
and he was finally made Bishop of Grenoble. He set him- 
self at once to reprove vice and to reform abuses, and so 
plentiful was the benediction of Heaven upon his labors 
that he had the comfort to see the face of his diocese in a 
short time exceedingly changed. After two years he 
privately resigned his bishopric, presuming on the tacit 
consent of the Holy See, and, putting on the habit of St. 
Bennet, he entered upon a novitiate in the austere abbey of 
Casa-Dei in Auvergne. There he lived a year, a perfect 
model of all virtues to that house of Saints, till Pope Greg- 
ory VII. commanded him, in virtue of holy obedience, to 
resume his pastoral charge. 

He earnestly solicited Pope Innocent II. for leave to 
resign his bishopric, that he might die in solitude, but was 
never-able to obtain his request. God was pleased to purify 
his soul by a lingering illness before He called him to Him- 
self. Some time before his death he lost his memory for 
everything but his prayers. He closed his penitential 
course on the 1st of April in 1132, wanting only two 
months of being eighty years old, of which he had been 
fifty-two years bishop. Miracles attested the sanctity of 
his happy death, and he was canonized by Innocent II. in 
1134. 

Reflection. — Let us learn from the example of the Saints, 
to shun the tumult of the world as much as our circum- 
stances will allow, and give ourselves up to the exercises of 
holy solitude, prayer, and pious reading. 



APRIL 2.] 



LlVfcS OF THE SAINTS. 



203 



April 2.— ST. FRANCIS OF PAULA. 

T the age of fifteen, Francis left his poor home at 



(s/r-*^ Paula in Calabria, to live as a hermit in a cave by 
the sea-coast. In time disciples gathered round him, and 
with them, in 1436, he founded the " Minims," so called to 
show that they were the least of monastic Orders. They 
observed a perpetual Lent, and never touched meat, fish, 
eggs, or milk. Francis himself made the rock his bed ; his 



best garment was a hair shirt, and boiled herbs his only 
fare. As his body withered his faith grew powerful, and 
he "did all things in Him Who strengthened him." He 
cured the sick, raised the dead, averted plagues, expelled 
evil spirits, and brought sinners to penance. A famous 
preacher, instigated by a few misguided monks, set to work 
to preach against St. Francis and his miracles. The Saint 
took no notice of it, and the preacher, finding that he made 
no way with his hearers, determined to see this poor 
hermit and confound him in person. The Saint received 





LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[ APRIL 3. 



him kindly, gave him a seat by the fire, and listened to a 
long exposition of his own frauds. He then quietly took 
some glowing embers from the fire, and closing his hands 
upon them unhurt, said, " Come, Father Anthony, warm 
yourself, for you are shivering for w 7 ant of a little charity." 
Father Anthony, falling at the Saint's feet, asked for 
pardon, and then, having received his embrace, quitted 
him, to become his panegyrist and attain himself to great 
perfection. When the avaricious King Ferdinand of 
Naples offered him money for his convent, Francis told 
him to give it back to his oppressed subjects, and softened 
his heart by causing blood to flow from the ill-gotten coin. 
Louis XL of France, trembling at the approach of death, 
sent for the poor hermit to w r ard off the foe whose advance 
neither his fortresses nor his guards could check. Francis 
went by the Pope's command, and prepared the king for a 
holy death. The successors of Louis showered favors on 
the Saint, his Order spread throughout Europe, and his 
name was reverenced through the Christian world. He 
died at the age of ninety-one, on Good Friday, 1507, with 
the crucifix in his hand, and the last words of Jesus on his 
lips, " Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," 

Reflection. — Rely in all difficulties upon God. That 
which enabled St. Francis to work miracles will in propor- 
tion do winders for yourself, by giving you strength and 
consolation. 

April 3.— ST. RICHARD OF CHICHESTER. 

ichard was born a.d. 1197, in the little town of 
Wyche, eight miles from Worcester, England. He 
and his elder brother were left orphans when young, and 
Richard gave up the studies which he loved, to farm his 
brother's impoverished estate. His brother, in gratitude for 
Richard's successful care, proposed to make over to him all 
his lands ; but he refused both the estates and the offer of a 




APRIL 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



205 



brilliant marriage, to study for the priesthood at Oxford. 
In 1235 he was appointed, for his learning and piety, chan- 
cellor of that University, and afterwards, by St. Edmund of 
Canterbury, chancellor of his diocese. He stood by that 
Saint in his long contest with the king, and accompanied 
him into exile. After St. Edmund's death Richard re- 
turned to England to toil as a simple curate, but was soon 
elected Bishop of Chichester in preference to the worthless 
nominee of Henry III. The king in revenge refused to 




recognize the election, and seized the revenues of the see. 
Thus Richard found himself fighting the same battle in 
w 7 hich St. Edmund had died. He went to Lyons, was there 
consecrated by Innocent IV, in 1245, and returning to Eng- 
land, in spite of his poverty and the king's hostility, 
exercised fully his episcopal rights, and thoroughly re- 
formed his see. After two years his revenues w^ere re- 
stored. Young and old loved St. Richard. He gave all he 
had, and worked miracles, to feed the poor and heal the 
sick ; but when the rights or purity of the Church were 
concerned, he was inexorable. A priest of noble blood pol- 



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[APRIL 4. 



luted his office by sin ; Eichard deprived him of his bene- 
fice, and refused the king's petition in his favor. On the 
other hand, when a knight violently put a priest in prison, 
Richard compelled the knight to walk round the priest's 
church with the same log of wood on his neck to which 
he had chained the priest ; and when the burgesses of 
Lewes tore a criminal from the church and hanged him, 
Eichard made them dig up the body from its unconsecrated 
grave, and bear it back to the sanctuary they had violated. 
Eichard died a.d. 1253, while preaching, at the Pope's 
command, a crusade against the Saracens. 

Reflection. — As a brother, as chancellor, and as bishop, 
St. Eichard faithfully performed each duty of his state 
without a thought of his own interests. Neglect of duty is 
the first sign of that self-love which ends with the loss of 
grace. 

April 4. — ST. ISIDORE, Archbishop. 

Isidore was born of a ducal family, at Carthagena in 
Spain. His two brothers, Leander, Archbishop of 
Seville, Fulgentius, Bishop of Ecija, and his sister Floren- 
tina, are Saints. As a boy he despaired at his ill success in 
study, and ran away from school. Eesting in his flight at 
a roadside spring, he observed a stone, which was hollowed 
out by the dripping water. This decided him to return, 
and by hard application he succeeded where he had failed. 
He went back to his master, and with the help of God be- 
came, even as a youth, one of the most learned men of the 
time. He assisted in converting Prince Eecared, the leader 
of the Arian party ; and with his aid, though at the con- 
stant peril of his own life, he expelled that heresy from 
Spain. Then, following a call from God, he turned a deaf 
ear to the entreaties of his friends, and embraced a hermit's 
life. Prince Eecared and many of the nobles and clergy of 
Seville went to persuade him to come forth, and represented 



APRIL 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



207 



the needs of the times, and the good he could do, and had 
already done, among the people. He refused, and, as far 
as we can judge, that refusal gave him the necessary oppor- 
tunity of acquiring the virtue and the power which after- 
wards made him an illustrious Bishop and Doctor of the 
Church. On the death of his brother Leander he was 
called to fill the vacant see. As a teacher, ruler, founder, 




and reformer, he labored not only in his own diocese, but 
throughout Spain, and even in foreign countries. He died 
in Seville on April 4, 636, and within sixteen years of his 
death was declared a Doctor of the Catholic Church. 



Reflection. — The strength of temptation usually lies in 
the fact that its object is something flattering to our pride, 
soothing to our sloth, or in some way attractive to the 
meaner passions. St. Isidore teaches us to listen neither to 
the promptings of nature nor the plausible advice of friends 
w r hen they contradict the voice of God. 



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[apkil 5. 




April 5. — ST. VINCENT FERRER. 

/£^his wonderful apostle, the u Angel of the Judgment," 
was born at Valencia in Spain, in 1350, and at the 
age of eighteen professed in the Order of St. Dominic. 
After a brilliant course of study he became master of 
sacred theology. For three years he read only the Scrip- 
tures, and knew the whole Bible by heart. He converted 
the Jews of Valencia, and their synagogue became a church. 
Grief at the great schism then afflicting the Church reduced 
him to the point of death ; but Our Lord Himself in glory 
bade him go forth to convert sinners, " for My judgment is 
nigh." This miraculous apostolate lasted twenty-one years. 
He preached throughout Europe, in the towns and villages 
of Spain, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, Ireland, 
Scotland. Everywhere tens of thousands of sinners were 
reformed ; Jews, infidels, and heretics were converted. 
Stupendous miracles enforced his words. Twice each day 
the u miracle bell" summoned the sick, the blind, the lame 
to be cured. Sinners the most obdurate became Saints ; 



APRIL 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



209 



speaking only his native Spanish, he was understood in all 
tongues. Processions of ten thousand penitents followed 
him in perfect order. Convents, orphanages, hospitals, 
arose in his path. Amidst all, his humility remained pro- 
found, his prayer constant. He always prepared for preach- 
ing by prayer. Once, however, when a person of high rank 
was to be present at his sermon he neglected prayer for 
study. The nobleman was not particularly struck by the 
discourse which had been thus carefully worked up ; but 
coming again to hear the Saint, unknown to the latter, the 
second sermon made a deep impression on his soul. "When 
St. Vincent heard of the difference, he remarked that in the 
first sermon it was Vincent who had preached, but in the 
second, Jesus Christ. He fell ill at Vannes in Britanny, 
and received the crown of everlasting glory in 1419. 

Reflection. — "Whatever you do," said St. Vincent, 
" think not of yourself, but of God." In this spirit he 
preached, and God spoke by him ; in this spirit, if we listen, 
we shall hear the voice of God. 

April 6.— ST. CELESTINE, Pope. 

T. Celestine was a native of Rome, and upon the de- 
mise of Pope Boniface he was chosen to succeed him, 
in September 422, by the wonderful consent of the whole 
city. His first official act was to confirm the condemna- 
tion of an African bishop who had been convicted of 
grave crimes. He wrote also to the bishops of the prov- 
inces of Vienne and Narbonne in Gaul, to correct several 
abuses, and ordered, among other things, that absolution 
or reconciliation should never be refused to any dying 
sinner who sincerely asked it ; for repentance depends 
not so much on time as on the heart. He assembled a 
synod at Rome in 430, in which the writings of JSTestorius 
were examined, and his blasphemies in maintaining in 
Christ a divine and a human person were condemned. The 



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[APRIL 8. 



Pope pronounced sentence of excommunication against 
Nestorius, and deposed him. Being informed that Agricola, 
the son of a British bishop called Severianus, who had been 




married before he was raised to the priesthood, had spread 
the seeds of the Pelagian heresy in Britain, St. Oelestine 
sent thither St. Germanus of Auxerre, whose zeal and con- 
duct happily prevented the threatening danger. He also 
sent St. Palladius, a Roman, to preach the Faith to the 
Scots, both in North Britain and in Ireland, and many 
authors of the life of St. Patrick say that apostle likewise 
received his commission to preach to the Irish from St. 
Celestine, in 431 . This holy Pope died on the 1st of August, 
in 432, having reigned almost ten years. 

Reflection.— Vigilance is truly needful to those to whom 
the care of souls has been confided. " Blessed are the ser- 
vants whom the Lord at His coming shall find watching." 



APRIL 7.] 



LI YES OF THE SAINTS. 



211 



April 7.— ST. HEGESIPPUS, a Primitive Father. 

'"F^e was by birth a Jew, and belonged to the Church of 
r-"— b Jerusalem, but travelling to Rome, he lived there 
nearly twenty years, from the pontificate of Anicetus to 
that of Eleutherius, in 177, when he returned into the East, 
where he died at an advanced age, probably at Jerusalem, 
in the year of Christ 180, according to the chronicle of 
Alexandria. He wrote in the year 13$ a History of the 
Church in five books, from the Passion of Christ down to 
his own time, the loss of which work is extremely regretted. 
In it he gave illustrious proofs of his faith, and showed 
the apostolical tradition, and that though certain men had 




disturbed the Church by broaching heresies, yet down to 
his time no episcopal see or particular church had fallen 
into error. This testimony he gave after having personally 
visited all the principal churches, both of the East and the 
West. 



212 



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[APRIL 7. 



BLESSED HERMAN JOSEPH OF STEINFELD. 

*~P^erman from his earliest years was a devoted client 
r-"—b of the Mother of God. As a little child he used to 
spend all his playtime in the church at Cologne before 
an image of Mary, where he received many favors. One 
bitter winter day, as little Herman was coming barefooted 
into church, his heavenly Mother appearing to him, 
asked him lovingly why his feet were bare in such cold 
weather. "Alas! dear Lady," he said, "it is because 
my parents are so poor." She pointed to a stone, telling 
him to look beneath it ; there he found four silver pieces 
wherewith to buy shoes. He did not forget to return 
and thank her. She enjoined him to go to the same 
spot in all his wants, and disappeared. Never did the 
supply fail him ; but his comrades, moved by a different 
spirit, could find nothing. Once Our Lady stretched 
out her hand, and took an apple which the boy offered 
her in pledge of his love. Another time he saw her high 
up in the tribune, with the Holy Child and St. John ; 
he longed to join them, but saw no way of doing so ; sud- 
denly he found himself placed by their side, and holding 
sweet converse with the Infant Jesus. At the age of twelve 
he entered the Premonstratensian house at Steinfeld, and 
there led an angelic life of purity and prayer. His fellow- 
novices, seeing what graces he received from Mary, called 
him Joseph ; and when he shrank from so high an honor, 
Our Lady in a vision took him as her spouse, and bade him 
bear the name. Jealously she reproved the smallest faults 
in her betrothed, and once appeared to him as an old 
woman, to upbraid him for some slight want of devotion. 
As her dowry, she conferred on him the most cruel suffer- 
ings of mind and body, which were especially severe on 
the great feasts of the Church. But with the cross Mary 
brought him the grace to bear it bravely, and thus his 



APRIL 8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



213 



heart was weaned from earthly things, and he was made 
ready for his early and saintly death, which took place 
about the year 1230. 

Reflection. — Do not approach our Blessed Mother with 
set prayers only. Be intimate with her ; confide in her ; 
commend to her every want and every project, small as 
well as great. It is a childlike reliance and a trustful ap- 
peal which she delights to reward. 

April 8.— ST. PERPETUUS, Bishop. 

QjT. Perpetuus was the eighth Bishop of Tours from St. 

Gatian, and governed that see above thirty years, 
from 461 to 491, when he died on the 8th of April. During 
all that time he labored by zealous sermons, many synods, 
and wholesome regulations, to lead souls to virtue. St. Per- 




petuus had a great veneration for the Saints, and respect 
for their relics, adorned their shrines, and enriched their 
churches. As there was a continual succession of miracles 
at the tomb of St. Martin, Perpetuus finding the church 



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[ APRIL 9. 



built by St. Bricius too small for the concourse of people 
that resorted thither, directed its enlargement. When the 
building was finished, the good bishop solemnized the dedi- 
cation of this new church, and performed the translation 
of the body of St. Martin, on the 4th of July in 473. Our 
Saint made and signed his last will, which is still extant, 
on the 1st of March, 475, fifteen years before his death. 
By it he remits all debts that were owing to him ; and 
having bequeathed to his church his library and several 
farms, and settled a fund for the maintenance of lamps, 
and the purchase of sacred vessels, as occasion might re- 
quire, he declares the poor his heirs. He adds most 
pathetic exhortations to concord and piety ; and bequeaths 
to his sister, Fidia Julia Perpetua, a little gold cross, with 
relics ; he leaves legacies to several other friends and priests, 
begging of each a remembrance of him in their prayers. 
His ancient epitaph equals him to the great St. Martin. 

Reflection. — The smart of poverty, says a spiritual writer, 
is allayed even more by one word of true sympathy than 
by the alms we give. Alms coldly and harshly given irri- 
tate rather than soothe. Even when we cannot give, words 
of kindness are as a precious balm ; and when we can give, 
they are the salt and seasoning of our alms. 



April 9. — ST. MARY OF EGYPT. 

% j i't the tender age of twelve, Mary left her father's 
oX-*-> house that she might sin without restraint, and for 
seventeen years she lived in shame at Alexandria. Then 
she accompanied a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and entangled 
many in grievous sin. She was in that city on the Feast of 
the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and went with the crowd 
to the church which contained the precious wood. The 
rest entered and adored ; but Mary w 7 as invisibly held back. 
In that instant her misery and pollution burst upon her. 
Turning to the Immaculate Mother, whose picture faced 



APRIL 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



215 



her in the porch, she vowed thenceforth to do penance if 
she might enter and stand like Magdalen beside the Cross. 
Then she entered in. As she knelt before Our Lady on leav- 
ing the church, a voice came to her which said, kt Pass over 
Jordan, and thou shalt find rest." She went into the 
wilderness, and there, in 420, forty-seven years after, the 
Abbot Zosimus met her. She told him that for seventeen 
years the old songs and scenes had haunted her ; ever 
since, she had had perfect peace. At her request he 
brought her on Holy Thursday the sacred body of Christ. 
She bade him return again after a year, and this time he 
found her corpse upon the sand, with an inscription saying, 
" Bury here the body of Mary the sinner." 

Reflection. — Blessed John Colombini was converted to 
God by reading St. Mary's life. Let us, too, learn from 
her not to be content with confessing and lamenting our 
sins, but to fly from what leads us to commit them. 

ST. JOHN THE ALMONER. 

T. John was married, but when his wife and two chil- 
dren died he considered it a call from God to lead a 
perfect life. He began to give away all he possessed in 
alms, and became known throughout the East as the 
Almoner. He was appointed Patriarch of Alexandria ; but 
before he would take possession of his see he told his ser- 
vants to go over the town and bring him a list of his lords 
— meaning the poor. They brought word that there were 
seventy-five hundred of them, and these he undertook to 
feed every day. On Wednesday and Friday in every week 
he sat on a bench before the church, to hear the complaints 
of the needy and aggrieved ; nor would he permit his ser- 
vants to taste food until their wrongs were redressed. The 
fear of death was ever before him, and he never spoke an 
idle word. He turned those out of church whom he saw 
talking, and forbade all detractors to enter his house. He 




216 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 9. 



left seventy churches in Alexandria, where he had found 
but seven. A merchant received from St. John five pounds 
weight of gold to buy merchandise. Having suffered ship- 
wreck and lost all, he had again recourse to John, who 
said, "Some of your merchandise was ill-gotten," and 
gave him ten pounds more ; but the next voyage he lost 
ship as well as goods. John then said, " The ship was 
wrongfully acquired. Take fifteen pounds of gold, buy 
corn with it, and put it on one of my ships." This time 
the merchant was carried by the winds without his own 




knowledge to England, where there was a famine ; and he 
sold the corn for its weight in tin, and on his return he 
found the tin changed to finest silver. St. John died in 
Cyprus, his native place, about the year 619. 

Reflection. — What sacrifices can we make for the poor 
which will seem enough, when we reflect that mercy to 
them is our only means of repaying Jesus Christ, Who 
sacrificed His life for us ? 



APRIL 10.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



217 



April 10.-ST. BADEMUS, Martyr. 

Bademus was a rich and noble citizen of Bethlapeta in 
Persia, who founded a monastery near that city, 
which he governed with great sanctity. He conducted his 
religious in the paths of perfection with sweetness, pru- 
dence, and charity. To crown his virtue, God permitted 
him, with seven of his monks, to be apprehended by the 
followers of King Sapor, in the thirty-sixth year of his 
persecution. He lay four months in a dungeon, loaded 
with chains, during which lingering martyrdom he every 
day received a number of stripes. But he triumphed over 
his torments by the patience and joy with which he suffered 
them for Christ. At the same time, a Christian lord named 
Nersan, Prince of Aria, was cast into prison because he re- 
fused to adore the sun. At first he showed some resolu- 
tion ; but at the sight of tortures his constancy failed him, 
and he promised to conform. The king, to try if his change 
was sincere, ordered Bademus to be introduced into the 
prison of Nersan, which was a chamber in the royal palace, 
and sent word to ISTersan that if he would despatch Bade- 
mus, he should be restored to his liberty and former digni- 
ties. The wretch accepted the condition ; a sword was put 
into his hand, and he advanced to plunge it into the breast 
of the abbot. But being seized with a sudden terror, he 
stopped short, and remained some time without being able 
to lift up his arm to strike. He had neither courage to re- 
pent, nor heart to accomplish his crime. He strove, how- 
ever, to harden himself, and continued with a trembling 
hand to aim at the sides of the martyr. Fear, shame, re- 
morse, and respect for the martyr made his strokes force- 
less and unsteady ; and so great was the number of the 
martyr's wounds, that the bystanders were in admiration 
at his invincible patience. After four strokes, the martyr's 
head was severed from the trunk. Nersan a short time 
after, falling into public disgrace, perished by the sword. 



218 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 10. 



The body of St. Bademus was reproachfully cast out of the 
city by the infidels, but was secretly carried away and in- 
terred by the Christians. His disciples were released from 




their chains four years afterward, upon the death of King 
Sapor. St. Bademus suffered on the 10th of April in the 
year 376. 

Reflection.— Oh ! what ravishing delights does the soul 
taste which is accustomed, by a familiar habit, to converse 
in the heaven of its own interior with the Three Persons of 
the adorable Trinity ! Worldlings wonder how holy soli- 
taries can pass their whole time buried in the most pro- 
found solitude and silence. But those who have had any 
experience of this happiness are surprised, with far greater 
reason, how it is possible that any souls which are created 
to converse eternally with God should here live in constant 
dissipation, seldom entertaining a devout thought of Him 
Whose charms and sweet conversation eternally ravish all 
the blessed. 



APRIL 11.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



April 11. — ST. LEO THE GREAT. 

*T| — ' eo was born at Borne. He embraced the sacred min- 
* ■ * istry, was made archdeacon of the Koman Church 
by St. Celestine, and under him and Sixtus III. had a large 
share in governing the Church. On the death of Sixtus, 
Leo was chosen Pope, and consecrated on St. Michael's 
day, 440, amid great joy. It was a time of terrible trial. 
Vandals and Huns were wasting the provinces of the em- 
pire, and Nestorians, Pelagians, and other heretics wrought 
more grievous havoc among souls. Whilst Leo's zeal made 
head against these perils, there arose the new heresy of 
Eutyches, who confounded the two natures of Christ. At 
once the vigilant pastor proclaimed the true doctrine of the 
Incarnation in his famous "tome ;" but fostered by the 




Byzantine court, the heresy gained a strong hold amongst 
the Eastern monks and bishops. After three years of un- 
ceasing toil, Leo brought about its solemn condemnation by 
the Council of Chalcedon, the Fathers all signing his tome, 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[ APRIL 12. 



and exclaiming, " Peter hath spoken by Leo." Soon after, 
Attila with his Huns broke into Italy, and marched through 
its burning cities upon Rome. Leo went out boldly to meet 
him, and prevailed on him to turn back. Astonished to 
see the terrible Attila, the "Scourge of God," fresh from 
the sack of Aquileia, Milan, Pavia, with the rich prize of 
Rome within his grasp, turn his great host back to the 
Danube at the Saint's word, his chiefs asked him why he 
had acted so strangely. He answered that he saw two 
venerable personages, supposed to be Sts. Peter and Paul, 
standing behind Leo, and impressed by this vision he with- 
drew. If the perils of the Church are as great now as in 
St. Leo's day, St. Peter's solicitude is not less. Two years 
later the city fell a prey to the Vandals ; but even then 
Leo saved it from destruction. He died a.d. 461, having 
ruled the Church twenty years. 

Reflection. — Leo loved to ascribe all the fruits of his un- 
sparing labors to the glorious chief of the apostles, who, he 
often declared, lives and governs in his successors. 

April 12 ST. JULIUS, Pope. 

t. Julius was a Roman, and chosen Pope on the 6th of 
February in 337. The Arian bishops in the East 
sent to him three deputies to accuse St. Athanasius, the 
zealous Patriarch of Alexandria. These accusations, as the 
order of justice required, Julius imparted to Athanasius, 
who thereupon sent his deputies to Rome ; when, upon an 
impartial hearing, the advocates of the heretics were con- 
founded and silenced upon every article of their accusation. 
The Arians then demanded a council, and the Pope assem- 
bled one in Rome in 341. The Arians instead of appearing 
held a pretended council at Antioch in 341, in which they 
presumed to appoint one Gregory, an impious Arian, 
Bishop of Alexandria, detained the Pope's legates beyond 
the time mentioned for their appearance ; and then wrote 




APRIL 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



221 



to his Holiness, alleging a pretended impossibility of their 
appearing, on account of the Persian war and other im- 
pediments. The Pope easily saw through these pretences, 
and in a council at Rome examined the cause of St. 
Athanasius, declared him innocent of the things laid to 
his charge by the Arians, and confirmed him in his see. 
He also acquitted Marcellus of Ancyra, upon his orthodox 
profession of faith. He drew up and sent by Count Gabian 




to the Oriental Eusebian bishops, who had first demanded 
a council and then refused to appear in it, an excellent 
letter, which is looked upon as one of the finest monu- 
ments of ecclesiastical antiquity. Finding the Eusebians 
still obstinate, he moved Constans, Emperor of the West, to 
demand the concurrence of his brother Constantius in the 
assembling of a general council at Sardica in Illyricum. 
This was opened in May 347, and declared St. Athanasius 
and Marcellus of Ancyra orthodox and innocent, deposed 
certain Arian bishops, and framed twenty-one canons of 
discipline. St. Julius reigned fifteen years, two months, 
and six days, dying on the 12th of April, 352. 



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[apiiil IS. 



April 13.— ST. HERMENEGILD, Martyr. 

*Y^ f eovigild, King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Her- 
« ' * menegild and Kecared, who reigned conjointly with 
him, All three were Arians, but Hermenegild married a 
zealous Catholic, the daughter of Sigebert, King of France? 
and by her holy example was converted to the faith. His 
father, on hearing the news, denounced him as a traitor, 
and marched to seize his person. Hermenegild tried to 




rally the Catholics of Spain in his defence, but they were 
too weak to make any stand, and, after a two years' fruit- 
less struggle, he surrendered on the assurance of a free 
pardon. When safely in the royal camp, the king had him 
loaded with fetters and cast into a foul dungeon at Seville. 
Tortures and bribes were in turn employed to shake his 
faith, but Hermenegild wrote to his father that he held the 
crown as nothing, and preferred to lose sceptre and life 
rather than betray the truth of God. At length, on Easter 
night, an Arian bishop entered his cell, and promised him 



APKIL 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



228 



his father's pardon if he would but receive Communion at 
his hands. Hermenegild indignantly rejected the offer, 
and knelt with joy for his death-stroke. The same night a 
light streaming from his cell told the Christians who were 
watching near that the martyr had won his crown, and was 
keeping his Easter with the Saints in glory. 

Leovigild on his death-bed, though still an Arian, bade 
Eecared seek out St. Leander, whom he had himself cruelly 
persecuted, and, . following Hermenegild's example, be re- 
ceived by him into the Church. Eecared did so, and on 
his father's death labored so earnestly for the extirpation 
of Arianism that he brought over the whole nation of the 
Visigoths to the Church. u Nor is it to be wondered," says 
St. Gregory, ' ' that he came thus to be a preacher of the 
true faith, seeing that he was brother of a martyr, whose 
merits did help him to bring so many into the lap of God's 
Church." 

Reflection.- — St. Hermenegild teaches us that constancy 
and sacrifice are the best arguments for the Faith, and the 
surest way to win souls to God. 

April 14. — ST. BENEZET, or Little Bennet. 

CS t. Benezet kept his mother's sheep in the country, 
and as a mere child was devoted to practices of 
piety. As many persons were drowned in crossing the 
Rhone, Benezet was inspired by God to build a bridge over 
that rapid river at Avignon. He obtained the approbation 
of the bishop, proved his mission by miracles, and began 
the work in 1177, which he directed during seven years. 
He died when the difficulty of the undertaking was over, in 
1184. This is attested by public monuments drawn up at 
that time and still preserved at Avignon, where the story is 
in everybody's mouth. His body was buried upon the 
bridge itself, which was not completely finished till four 
years after his decease, the structure whereof was attended 



224 



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[APRIL 14. 



with miracles from the first laying of the foundations till 
it was completed in 1188. Other miracles wrought after 
this at his tomb induced the city to build a chapel upon the 




bridge, in which his body lay nearly five hundred years. 
But in 1669 a greater part of the bridge falling down 
through the impetuosity of the waters, the coffin was taken 
up, and being opened in 1670 in presence of the grand 
vicar, during the vacancy of the arch i episcopal see, the 
body was found entire, without the least sign of corrup- 
tion ; even the bowels were perfectly sound, and the color 
of the eyes lively and sprightly, though, through the 
dampness of the situation, the iron bars about the coffin 
were much damaged with rust. The body was found in 
the same condition by the Archbishop of Avignon in 1674, 
when, accompanied by the Bishop of Orange and a great 
concourse of nobility, he performed the translation of it, 
with great pomp, into the Church of the Celestines, this 
Order having obtained of Louis XIV. the honor of being 
intrusted with the custody of his relics till such time as 
the bridge and chapel should be rebuilt. 



April 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



225 



Reflection. — Let us pray for perseverance in good works. 
St. Augustine says, "When the Saints pray in the words 
which Christ taught, they ask for little else than the gift of 
perseverance." 

April 15.— ST. PATERNUS, Bishop. 

C^T. Paternus was born at Poitiers, about the year 482. 

His father, Patranus, with the consent of his wife, 
went into Ireland, where he ended his days in holy solitude. 
Paternus, fired by his example, embraced a monastic life in 
the abbey of Marnes. After some time, burning with a 
desire of attaining to the perfection of Christian virtue, he 
passed over to Wales, and in Cardiganshire founded a mon- 
astery called Llan-patern-vaur, or the church of the great 




Paternus. He made a visit to his father in Ireland, but 
being called back to his monastery of Marnes, he soon after 
retired with St. Scubilion, a monk of that house, and em- 
braced an austere anchoretical life in the forests of Scicy, 
in the diocese of Coutances, near the sea, having first ob- 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL lG. 



tained leave of the bishop and of the lord of the place. 
This desert, which was then of great extent, but which has 
been since gradually gained upon by the sea, was anciently 
in great request among the Druids. St. Paternus con- 
verted to the faith the idolaters of that and many neigh- 
boring parts, as far as Bayeux, and prevailed upon them to 
demolish a pagan temple in this desert, which was held in 
great veneration by the ancient Gauls. In his old age he 
was consecrated Bishop of Avranches by Germanus, Bishop 
of Kouen. 

Some false brethren having created a division of opinion 
among the bishops of the province with respect to St. Pa- 
ternus, he preferred retiring rather than to afford any 
ground for dissension, and, after governing his diocese for 
thirteen years, he withdrew to a solitude in France, and 
there ended his days about the year 550. 

Reflection. — The greatest sacrifices imposed by the love 
of peace will appear as naught if we call to mind the exam- 
ple of Our Saviour, and remember His words, ' ' Blessed are 
the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of 
God." 

April 16 EIGHTEEN MARTYRS OF SARAGOSSA, and 

ST. ENCRATIS, or ENGRATIA, Virgin, Martyr. 

t. Optatus and seventeen other holy men received the 
crown of martyrdom on the same day, at Saragossa, 
under the cruel Governor Dacian, in the persecution of 
Diocletian, in 304. Two others, Caius and Crementius, 
died of their torments after a second conflict. 

The Church also celebrates on this day the triumph of St. 
Encratis, or Engratia, Virgin. She was a native of Portu- 
gal. Her father had promised her in marriage to a man 
of quality in Kousillon ; but fearing the dangers and de- 
spising the vanities of the world, and resolving to preserve 
her virginity, in order to appear more agreeable to her 




APRIL 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



227 



heavenly Spouse and serve Him without hindrance, she 
stole from her father's house and fled privately to Saragossa, 
where the persecution was hottest, under the eyes of Da- 
cian. She even reproached him with his barbarities, upon 
which he ordered her to be long tormented in the most in- 
human manner : her sides were torn with iron hooks, and 
one of her breasts was cut off, so that the inner parts of 
her chest were exposed to view, and part of her liver was 
pulled out. In this condition she was sent back to prison, 




being still alive, and died by the mortifying of her wounds, 
in 304. The relics of all these martyrs were found at 
Saragossa in 1389. 

Reflection. — Men do not pursue temporal goods at hap- 
hazard, or by fits and starts. Let us be as punctual and 
orderly in the service of God, not casting about for new 
paths, but perfecting our ordinary devotions. If we per- 
severe in these, Paradise is ours. 



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[APRIL 17. 



April 17.— ST. ANICETUS, Pope, Martyr. 

^^T. Anicetus succeeded St. Pius, and sat about eight 
years, from 165 to 173. If he did not shed his blood 
for the Faith, he at least purchased the title of martyr by 
great sufferings and dangers. He received a visit from St. 
Poly carp, and tolerated the custom of the Asiatics in cele- 
brating Easter on the 14th day of the first moon after the 
vernal equinox, with the Jews. His vigilance protected his 




flock from the wiles of the heretics Valentine and Marcion, 
who sought to corrupt the faith in the capital of the world. 

The first thirty- six bishops at Kome, down to Liberius, 
and, this one excepted, all the popes to Symmachus, the 
fifty-second, in 498, are honored among the Saints ; and 
out of two hundred and forty-eight popes, from St. Peter 
to Clement XIII. seventy-eight are named in the Roman 
Martyrology. In the primitive ages, the spirit of fervor 
and perfect sanctity, which is nowadays so rarely to be 
found, was conspicuous in most of the faithful, and espe- 



APRIL 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



229 



cially in their pastors. The whole tenor of their lives 
breathed it in such a manner as to render them the miracles 
of the world, angels on earth, living copies of their divine 
Kedeemer, the odor of whose virtues and holy law and re- 
ligion they spread on every side. 

Reflection. — If, after making the most solemn protesta- 
tions of inviolable friendship and affection for a fellow- 
creature, we should the next moment revile and contemn 
him, without having received any provocation or affront, 
and this habitually, would not the whole world justly call 
our protestations hypocrisy, and our pretended friendship 
a mockery ? Let us by this rule judge if our love of God 
be sovereign, so long as our inconstancy betrays the insin- 
cerity of our hearts. 

April 18 ST. APOLLONIUS, Martyr. 

arcus Aurelius had persecuted the Christians, but 
his son Commodus, who in 180 succeeded him, 
showed himself favorable to them out of regard to his Em- 
press Marcia, who was an admirer of the Faith. During 
this calm the number of the faithful was exceedingly in- 
creased, and many persons of the first rank, among them 
Apollonius, a Roman senator, enlisted themselves under 
the banner of the cross. He was a person very well versed 
both in philosophy and the Holy Scripture. In the midst 
of the peace which the Church enjoyed, he was publicly 
accused of Christianity by one of bis own slaves. The slave 
was immediately condemned to have his legs broken, and 
to be put to death, in consequence of an edict of Marcus 
Aurelius, who, without repealing the former laws against 
convicted Christians, ordered by it that their accusers 
should be put to death. The slave being executed, the 
same judge sent an order to St. Apollonius to renounce his 
religion as he valued his life and fortune. The Saint cou- 
rageously rejected such ignominious terms of safety, where- 




230 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[ APRIL 19. 



fore Perennis referred him to the judgment of the Koman 
senate, to give an account of his faith to that body. Per- 
sisting in his refusal to comply with the condition, the Saint 




was condemned by a decree of the Senate, and beheaded 
about the year 186. 

Reflection. — It is the prerogative of the Christian religion 
to inspire men with such resolution, and form them to such 
heroism, that they rejoice to sacrifice their life to truth. 
This is not the bare force and exertion of nature, but the 
undoubted power of the Almighty, Whose strength is thus 
made perfect in weakness. Every Christian ought, by his 
manner, to bear witness to the sanctity of his faith. Such 
would be the force of universal good example, that no 
libertine or infidel could withstand it. 

April 19 ST. ELPHEGE, Archbishop. 

t. Elphege was born in the year 954, of a noble Saxon 
family. He first became a monk in the monastery 
of Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury, England, and afterwards 




APRIL 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



231 



lived as a hermit near Bath, where he founded a com- 
munity under the rule of St. Benedict, and became its first 
abbot. At thirty years of age he was chosen Bishop of 
Winchester, and twenty-two years later he became Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. In 1011, when the Danes landed in 
Kent and took the city of Canterbury, putting all to fire 
and sword, St. Elphege was captured and carried off in the 
expectation of a large ransom. He was unwilling that his 
ruined church and people should be put to such expense, 
and w r as kept in a loathsome prison at Greenwich for seven 
months. While so confined some friends came and urged 
him to lay a tax upon his tenants to raise the sum de- 
manded for his ransom. " What reward can I hope for," 
said he, "if I spend upon myself what belongs to the poor ? 
Better give up to the poor w 7 hat is ours, than take from 




them the little which is their own." As he still refused to 
give ransom, the enraged Danes fell upon him in a fury, 
beat him with the blunt sides of their weapons, and bruised 
him with stones until one, whom the Saint had baptized 
shortly before, put an end to his sufferings by the blow of 



232 



Little pictorial 



[apkil 20. 



an axe. He died on Easter Saturday, April 19, 1012, his 
last words being a prayer for his murderers. His body was 
first buried in St. Paul's, London, but was afterwards trans- 
lated to Canterbury by King Canute. A church dedicated 
to St. Elphege still stands upon the place of his martyrdom 
at Greenwich. 

Reflection. — Those who are in high positions should con- 
sider themselves as stewards rather than masters of the 
wealth or power intrusted to them for the benefit of the 
poor and weak. St. Elphege died rather than extort his 
ransom from the poor tenants of the Church lands. 

April 20.— ST. MARCELLINUS, Bishop. 



C^f t. Marcellinus was born in Africa, of a noble family ; 
J^-^ accompanied by Vincent and Domninus, he went over 
into Gaul, and there preached the Gospel, with great suc- 




cess, in the neighborhood of the Alps. He afterwards 
settled at Embrun, where he built a chapel in which he 
passed his nights in prayer, after laboring all the day in 



APRIL 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



233 



the exercise of his sacred calling. By his pious example as 
well as by his earnest words, he converted many of the 
heathens among whom he lived. He was afterwards made 
bishop of the people whom he had won over to Christ, but 
the date of his consecration is not positively known. Burn- 
ing with zeal for the glory of God, he sent Yincent and 
Domninus to preach the faith in those parts which he could 
not visit in person. He died at Embrun about the year 
374, and was there interred. St. Gregory of Tours, who 
speaks of Marcellinus in terms of highest praise, mentions 
many miracles as happening at his tomb. 

Reflection. — Though you may not be called upon to 
preach, at least endeavor to set a good example, remember- 
ing that deeds often speak louder than words. 

April 21 ST. ANSELM, Archbishop. 

' j I ' nselm was a native of Piedmont. When a boy of 



fifteen, being forbidden to enter religion, he for a 
while lost his fervor, left his home, and went to various 
schools in France. At length his vocation revived, and he 
became a monk at Bee in Normandy. The fame of his 
sanctity in this cloister led "William Bufus, when danger- 
ously ill, to take him for his confessor, and to name him to 
the vacant see of Canterbury. Now began the strife of 
Anselm's life. With new health the king relapsed into his 
former sins, plundered the Church lands, scorned the arch- 
bishop's rebukes, and forbade him to go to Borne for the 
pallium. Anselm went, and returned only to enter into a 
more bitter strife with William's successor, Henry I. This 
sovereign claimed the right of investing prelates with the 
ring and crozier, symbols of the spiritual jurisdiction which 
belongs to the Church alone. The worldly prelates did not 
scruple to call St. Anselm a traitor for his defence of the 
Pope's supremacy ; on which the Saint rose, and with calm 
dignity exclaimed, " If any man pretends that I violate my 




LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 21. 



faith to my king because I will not reject the authority of 
the Holy See of Rome, let him stand forth, and in the name 
of God I will answer him as I ought." No one took up the 
challenge ; and to the disappointment of the king, the 
barons sided with the Saint, for they respected his courage, 
and saw that his cause was their own. Sooner than yield, 




the archbishop went again into exile, till at last the king 
was obliged to submit to the feeble but inflexible old man. 
In the midst of his harassing cares, St. Anselm found time 
for writings which have made him celebrated as the father 
of scholastic theology ; while in metaphysics and in science 
he had few equals. He is yet more famous for his devotion 
to our blessed Lady, whose Feast of the Immaculate Con- 
ception he was the first to establish in the West. He died 

A. D. 1109. 

Reflection.— "Whoever, like St. Anselm, contends for the 
Church's rights, is fighting on the side of God against the 
tyranny of Satan. 



APRIL 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



235 



April 22. — ST. SOTER, Pope, Martyr. 

T. Soter was raised to the papacy upon the death of St. 
Anicetus, in 173. By the sweetness of his discourses 
he comforted all persons with the tenderness of a father, 
and assisted the indigent with liberal alms, especially those 
who suffered for the Faith. He liberally extended his 
charities, according to the custom of his predecessors, to 
remote churches, particularly to that of Corinth, to which 
he addressed an excellent letter, as St. Dionysius of Corinth 
testifies in his letter of thanks, who adds that his letter was 
found worthy to be read for their edification on Sundays at 
their assemblies to celebrate the divine mysteries, together 
with the letter of St. Clement, pope. St. Soter vigorously 
opposed the heresy of Mont anus, and governed the Church 
to the year 177. 

ST. LEON1DES, Martyr. 

he Emperor Severus, in the year 202, which was the 
tenth of his reign, raised a bloody persecution, 
which filled the whole empire with martyrs, but especially 
Egypt. The most illustrious of those who by their 
triumphs ennobled and edified the city of Alexandria was 
Leonides, father of the great Origen. He was a Christian 
philosopher, and excellently versed both in the profane and 
sacred sciences. He had seven sons, the eldest of whom 
was Origen, whom he brought up with abundance of care, 
returning God thanks for having blessed him with a son of 
such an excellent disposition for learning, and a very great 
zeal for piety. These qualifications endeared him greatly 
to his father, who, after his son was baptized, would come 
to his bedside while he was asleep, and, opening his bosom, 
kiss it respectfully, as being the temple of the Holy Ghost. 
"When the persecution raged at Alexandria, under Lsetus, 
governor of Egypt, in the tenth year of Severus, Leonides 




566 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[ APRIL 22. 



was cast into prison. Origen, who was then only seven- 
teen years of age, burned with an incredible desire of 
martyrdom, and sought every opportunity of meeting with 




it. But his mother conjured him not to forsake her, and 
his ardor being redoubled at the sight of his father's chains, 
she was forced to lock up all his clothes to oblige him to 
stay at home. So, not being able to do any more, he wrote 
a letter to his father in very moving terms, strongly ex- 
horting him to look on the crown that was offered him 
with courage and joy, adding this clause, "Take heed, sir, 
that for our sakes you do not change your mind." Leo- 
nides was accordingly beheaded for the faith in 202. His 
estates and goods being all confiscated, and seized for the 
emperor's use, his widow was left with seven children to 
maintain in the poorest condition imaginable ; but Divine 
Providence w T as both her comfort and support. 



APRIL 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



237 



April 23.— ST. GEORGE, Martyr. 

C^t. George was born in Cappadocia, at the close of 
the third century, of Christian parents. In early 
youth he chose a soldier's life, and soon obtained the favor 
of Diocletian, who advanced him to the grade of tribune. 
When, however, the emperor began to persecute the Chris- 
tians, George rebuked him at once sternly and openly for 
his cruelty, and threw up his commission. He was in con- 
sequence subjected to a lengthened series of torments, and 
finally beheaded. There was something so inspiriting in the 
defiant cheerfulness of the young soldier, that every Chris- 
tian felt a personal share in this triumph of Christian forti- 
tude ; and as years rolled on St. George became a type of 




successful combat against evil, the slayer of the dragon, 
the darling theme of camp song and story, until ' 4 so thick 
a shade his very glory round him made" that his real 
lineaments became hard to trace. Even beyond the circle 
of Christendom he was held in honor, and invading Sara- 



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LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 24 



cens taught themselves to except from desecration the 
image of him they hailed as the " White-horsed Knight." 
The devotion to St. George is one of the most ancient and 
widely spread in the Church. In the East, a church of 
St. George is ascribed to Constantine, and his name is 
invoked in the most ancient liturgies ; whilst in the West, 
Malta, Barcelona, Valencia, Arragon, Genoa, and England 
have chosen him as their patron. 

Reflection. — " What shall I say of fortitude, without 
which neither wisdom nor justice is of any worth ? Forti- 
tude is not of the body, but is a constancy of soul ; where- 
with we are conquerors in righteousness, patiently bear all 
adversities, and in prosperity are not puffed up. This 
fortitude he lacks who is overcome by pride, anger, greed, 
drunkenness, and the like. Neither have they fortitude 
who when in adversity make shift to escape at their souls' 
expense ; wherefore the Lord saith, ' Fear not those who 
kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.' In like manner 
those who are puffed up in prosperity and abandon them- 
selves to excessive joviality cannot be called strong. For 
how can they be called strong who cannot hide and repress 
the heart's emotion ? Fortitude is never conquered, or if 
conquered, is not fortitude." — 8t. Bruno. 

April 24 ST. FIDELIS OF SICMARINGEN. 

Bidelis was born at Sigmaringen in 1577, of noble 
parents. In his youth he frequently approached 
the sacraments, visited the sick and the poor, and spent 
moreover many hours before the altar. For a time he fol- 
lowed the legal profession, and was remarkable for his 
advocacy of the poor and his respectful language towards 
his opponents. Finding it difficult to become both a rich 
lawyer and a good Christian, Fidelis entered the Capuchin 
Order, and embraced a life of austerity and prayer. Hair 
shirts, iron-pointed girdles, and disciplines were penances 



APRIL 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



239 



too light for his fervor ; and being filled with a desire of 
martyrdom, he rejoiced at being sent to Switzerland by the 
newly-founded Congregation of Propaganda, and braved 
every peril to rescue souls from the diabolical heresy of 
Calvin. When preaching at Sevis he was fired at by a 
Calvinist, but the fear of death could not deter him from 




proclaiming divine truth. After his sermon he was way- 
laid by a body of Protestants headed by a minister, who 
attacked him and tried to force him to embrace their so- 
called reform. But he said, u I came to refute your errors, 
not to embrace them ; I will never renounce Catholic doc- 
trine, which is the truth of all ages, and I fear not death.' ' 
On this they fell upon him with their poignards, and the 
first martyr of Propaganda went to receive his palm. 

Reflection. — "We delight in decorating the altars of God 
with flowers, lights, and jewels, and it is right to do so ; 
but if we wish to offer to God gifts of higher value, let us, 
in imitation of St. Fidelis, save the souls who but for us 



240 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 25. 



would be lost ; for so we shall offer Him, as it were, the 
jewels of paradise. 

April 25.— ST. MARK, Evangelist. 

C^ t. Mark was converted to the Faith by the Prince of 
the Apostles, whom he afterwards accompanied to 
Eome, acting there as his secretary or interpreter. When 
St. Peter was writing his first epistle to the churches of 
Asia, he affectionately joins with his own salutation that 
of his faithful companion, whom he calls " my son Mark." 
The Roman people entreated St. Mark to put in writing for 




them the substance of St. Peter's frequent discourses on 
Our Lord's life. This the Evangelist did under the eye and 
with the express sanction of the apostle, and every page of 
his brief but graphic gospel so bore the impress of St. 
Peter's character, that the Fathers used to name it 
" Peter's Gospel." St. Mark was now sent to Egypt to 
found the Church of Alexandria. Here his disciples be- 
came the wonder of the world for their piety and asceti- 



APRIL 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



241 



cism, so that St. Jerome speaks of St. Mark as the father of 
the anchorites, who at a later time thronged the Egyptian 
deserts. Here, too, he set np the first Christian school, the 
fruitful mother of many illustrious doctors and bishops. 
After governing his see for many years, St. Mark was one 
day seized by the heathen, dragged by ropes over stones, 
and thrown into prison. On the morrow the torture was 
repeated, and having been consoled by a vision of angels 
and the voice of Jesus, St. Mark went to his reward. 

It is to St. Mark that we owe the many slight touches 
which often give such vivid coloring to the Gospel scenes, 
and help us to picture to ourselves the very gestures and 
looks of our blessed Lord. It is he alone who notes that in 
the temptation Jesus was "with the beasts ;" that He slept 
in the boat "on a pillow ;" that He " embraced " the little 
children. He alone preserves for us the commanding words 
"Peace,, be still ! " by which the storm was quelled; or 
even the very sounds of His voice, the "Ephpheta" and 
" Talitha cumi, " by w T hich the dumb were made to speak 
and the dead to rise. So, too, the ' ' looking round about 
with anger," and ths "sighing deeply," long treasured in 
the memory of the penitent apostle, who was himself con- 
verted by his Saviour's look, are here recorded by his faith- 
ful interpreter. 

Reflection. — Learn from St. Mark to keep the image of 
the Son of man ever before your mind, and to ponder every 
syllable which fell from His lips. 

April 26.— STS. CLETUS and MARCELL1NUS, Popes, 
Martyrs. 

t. Cletus was the third Bishop of Eome, and suc- 
ceeded St. Linus, which circumstance alone shows 
his eminent virtue among the first disciples of St. Peter 
in the West. He sat twelve years, from 76 to 89. The 
canon of the Roman Mass, Bede, and other martyrologists, 




242 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 26. 



style him a martyr. He was buried near St. Linus, in 
the Vatican, and his relics still remain in that church. 

St. Marcellinus succeeded St. Caius in the bishopric of 
Borne in 296, about the time that Diocletian set himself up 




for a deity, and impiously claimed divine honors. In those 
stormy times of persecution Marcellinus acquired great 
glory. He sat in St. Peter's chair eight years three months 
and twenty-five days, dying in 304, a year after the cruel 
persecution broke out, in which he gained much honor. He 
has been styled a martyr, though his blood was not shed in 
the cause of religion. 

Reflection.— It is a fundamental maxim of the Christian 
morality, and a truth which Christ has established in the 
clearest terms and in innumerable passages of the Gospel, 
that the cross or sufferings and mortification are the road 
to eternal bliss. They, therefore, who lead not here a 
crucified and mortified life are unworthy ever to possess 
the unspeakable joys of His kingdom. Our Lord Himself, 
our model and our head, walked in this path, and His great 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



243 



Apostle puts ns in mind that He entered into bliss only by 
His blood and by the cross. 

April 27 ST. ZITA, Virgin. 

jnf'iTA lived for forty-eight years in the service of Fati- 
*" * nelli, a citizen of Lucca. During this time she rose 
each morning, while the household were asleep, to hear 
Mass, and then toiled incessantly till night came, doing the 
work of others as well as her own. Once Zita, absorbed in 
prayer, remained in church past the usual hour of her 
bread-making. She hastened home, reproaching herself 
with neglect of duty, and found the bread made and ready 
for the oven. She never doubted that her mistress or one 
of her servants had kneaded it, and going to them, thanked 
them ; but they were astonished. No human being had 




made the bread. A delicious perfume rose from it, for 
angels had made it during her prayer. For years her mas- 
ter and mistress treated her as a mere drudge, while her 
fellow-servants, resenting her diligence as a reproach to 



£44 



LITTLE PlCTOftlAL 



[ APRIL 28. 



themselves, insulted and struck her. Zita united these 
sufferings with those of Christ her Lord, never changing 
the sweet tone of her voice, nor forgetting her gentle and 
quiet ways. At length Fatinelli, seeing the success which 
attended her undertakings, gave her charge of his children 
and of the household. She dreaded this dignity more than 
the worst humiliation, but scrupulously fulfilled her trust. 
By her holy economy her master's goods were multiplied, 
while the poor were fed at his door. Gradually her unfail- 
ing patience conquered the jealousy of her fellow-servants, 
and she became their advocate with their hot-tempered 
master, who dared not give way to his anger before Zita. 
In the end her prayer and toil sanctified the whole house, 
and drew down upon it the benediction of Heaven. She 
died A.B. 1272, and in the moment of her death a bright 
star appearing above her attic showed that she had gained 
eternal rest. 

Reflection. — "What must I do to be saved?" said a 
certain one in fear of damnation. " Work and pray, pray 
and work," a voice replied, " and thou shalt be saved." 
The whole life of St. Zita teaches us this truth. 

April 28.— ST. PAUL OF THE CROSS. 

he eighty-one years of this Saint's life were modelled 
on the Passion of Jesus Christ. In his childhood, 
when praying in church, a heavy bench fell on his foot, 
but the boy took no notice of the bleeding wound, and 
spoke of it as "a rose sent from God." A few years later, 
the vision of a scourge with " love " written on its lashes 
assured him that his thirst for penance would be satisfied. 
In the hope of dying for the Faith, he enlisted in a crusade 
against the Turks ; but a voice from the Tabernacle warned 
him that he was to serve Christ alone, and that he should 
found a congregation in His honor. At the command of 
his bishop he began while a layman to preach the Passion, 



APRIL 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



245 



and a series of crosses tried the reality of his vocation. 
All his first companions, save his brother, deserted him ; 
the Sovereign Pontiff refused him an audience ; and it was 
only after a delay of seventeen years that the Papal appro- 
bation was obtained, and the first house of the Passionists 
was opened on Monte Argentario, the spot which Our Lady 
had pointed out. St. Paul chose as the badge of his Order 
a heart with three nails, in memory of the sufferings of 
Jesus, but for himself he invented a more secret and dura- 
ble sign. Moved by the same holy impulse as Blessed 
Henry Suso, St. Jane Frances, and other Saints, he branded 
on his side the Holy Name, and its characters were found 
there after death. His heart beat with a supernatural pal- 
pitation, which was especially vehement on Fridays, and 
the heat at times was so intense as to scorch his shirt in the 
region of his heart. Through fifty years of incessant bodily 
pain, and amidst all his trials, Paul read the love of Jesus 
everywhere, and would cry out to the flowers and grass, 
"Oh ! be quiet, be quiet," as if they were reproaching him 
with ingratitude. He died whilst the Passion was being 
read to him, and so passed with Jesus from the cross to 
glory. 

ST. VITALIS, Martyr. 

t. Vitalis was a citizen of Milan, and is said to have 
been the father of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius. The 
divine providence conducted him to Kavenna, where he saw 
a Christian named Ursicinus, who was condemned to lose 
his head for his faith, standing aghast at the sight of 
death, and seeming ready to yield. Vitalis was extremely 
moved at this spectacle. He knew his double obligation of 
preferring the glory of God and the eternal salvation of his 
neighbor to his own corporal life : he therefore boldly and 
successfully encouraged Ursicinus to triumph over death, 
and after his martyrdom carried off his body, and re- 




LITTLE PICTOItfAL 



[APKIL 20. 



spectfully interred it. The judge, whose name was Pauli- 
nus, being informed of this, caused Yitalis to be appre- 
hended, stretched on the rack, and, after other torments, 
to be buried alive in a place called the Palm-tree, in Ka- 
venna. His wife, Valeria, returning from Kavenna to 




Milan, was beaten to death by peasants, because she refused 
to join them in an idolatrous festival and riot. 

Reflection. — We are not all called to the sacrifice of mar- 
tyrdom ; but we are all bound to make our lives a continued 
sacrifice of ourselves to God, and to perform every action 
in this perfect spirit of sacrifice. Thus we shall both live 
and die to God, perfectly resigned to His holy will in all 
His appointments. 

April 29.— ST. PETER, Martyr. 

IN 1205 the glorious martyr Peter was born at Verona of 
heretical parents. He went to a Catholic school, and 
his Manichean uncle asked what he learnt. " The Creed," 
answered Peter ; "I believe in God, Creator of heaven and 



APftlL 29. j LIVES Of THE SAINTS'. Mi 

earth," No persuasion could shake his faith, and at fifteen 
he received the habit from St. Dominic himself at Bologna. 
After ordination, he preached to the heretics of Lombardy, 
and converted multitudes. St. Peter was constantly obliged 
to dispute with heretics, and although he was able to con- 
found them, still the devil took occasion thence to tempt 
him once against faith. Instantly he had recourse to 
prayer before an image of Our Lady, and heard a voice 
saying to him the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, " I 
have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith may not fail ; 
and thou shalt confirm thy brethren in it. 1 ' Once when 
exhorting a vast crowd under the burning sun, the heretics 
defied him to procure shade. He prayed, and a cloud over- 
shadowed the audience. In spite of his sanctity, he was 
foully slandered and even punished for immorality. He 
submitted humbly, but complained in prayer to Jesus cruci- 
fied. The crucifix spoke, "And I, Peter, what did I do?" 
Every day, as he elevated at Mass the precious blood, he 
prayed, "Grant, Lord, that I may die for Thee, Who for 
me didst die." His prayer was answered. The heretics, 
confounded by him, sought his life. Two of them attacked 
him as he was returning to Milan, and struck his head with 
an axe. St. Peter fell, commended himself to God, dipped 
his finger in his own blood, and wrote on the ground, U I 
believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth." They then 
stabbed him in the side, and he received his crown. 

Reflection. — From a boy St. Peter boldly professed his 
faith among heretics. He spent his life in preaching the 
Faith to heretics, and received the glorious and long-de- 
sired crown of martyrdom from heretics. We are sur- 
rounded by heretics. Are we courageous, firm, zealous, 
full of prayer for their conversion, unflinching in our pro- 
fession of faith ? 



248 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[APRIL 29. 




ST. HUGH, Abbot of Cluny. 

^^t. Hugh was a prince related to the sovereign house 
N-^ of the dukes of Burgundy, and had his education 
under the tuition of his pious mother, and under the care 
of Hugh, Bishop of Auxerre, his great-uncle. From his 
infancy he was exceedingly given to prayer and meditation , 
and his life was remarkably innocent and holy. One day, 
hearing an account of the wonderful sanctity of the monks 
of Cluny, under St. Odilo, he was so moved that he set out 
that moment, and going thither, humbly begged the monas- 
tic habit. After a rigid novitiate, he made his profession 
in 1039, being sixteen years old. His extraordinary virtue, 
especially his admirable humility, obedience, charity, sweet- 
ness, prudence, and zeal, gained him the respect of the 
whole community ; and upon the death of St. Odilo, in 
1049, though only twenty-five years old, he succeeded to 
the government of that great abbey, which he held sixty- 
two years. He received to the religious profession Hugh, 
Duke of Burgundy, and died on the twenty-ninth of April, 



APRIL 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



249 



in 1109, aged eighty-five. He was canonized twelve years 
after his death by Pope Calixtus II. 

April 30.— ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 

aATHERiNE, the daughter of a humble tradesman, was 
raised up to be the guide and guardian of the Church 
in one of the darkest periods of its history, the fourteenth 
century. As a child, prayer was her delight. She would 
say the "Hail Mary" on each step as she mounted the 
stairs, and was granted in reward a vision of Christ in 
glory. When but seven years old, she made a vow of vir- 
ginity, and afterwards endured bitter persecution for re- 
fusing to marry. Our Lord gave her His Heart in exchange 
for her own, communicated her with His own hands, and 
stamped on her body the print of His wounds. At the age 




of fifteen she entered the Third Order of St. Dominic, but 
continued to reside in her father's shop, where she united a 
life of active charity with the prayer of a contemplative 
Saint. From this obscure home the seraphic virgin was 



250 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 1. 



summoned to defend the Church's cause. Armed with 
Papal authority, and accompanied by three confessors, she 
travelled through Italy, reducing rebellious cities to the 
obedience of the Holy See, and winning hardened souls to 
God. In the face well-nigh of the whole world she sought 
out Gregory XI. at Avignon, brought him back to Rome, 
and by her letters to the kings and queens of Europe made 
good the Papal cause. She was the counsellor of Urban 
VI., and sternly rebuked the disloyal cardinals who had 
part in electing an antipope. Long had the holy virgin 
foretold the terrible schism which began ere she died. Day 
and. night she wept and prayed for unity and peace. But 
the devil excited the Roman people against the Pope, so 
that some sought the life of Christ's Yicar. With intense 
earnestness did St. Catherine beg Our Lord to prevent this 
enormous crime. In spirit she saw the whole city full of 
demons tempting the people to resist and even slay the 
Pope. The seditious temper was subdued by Catherine's 
prayers ; but the devils vented their malice by scourging 
the Saint herself, who gladly endured all for God and His 
Church. She died at Rome at the age of thirty-three, a.l>. 
1380. 

Reflection. — The seraphic St. Catherine willingly sacri- 
ficed the delights of contemplation to labor for the Church 
and the Apostolic See. How deeply do the troubles of the 
Church and the consequent loss of souls afflict us ? How 
often do we pray for the Church and the Pope ? 

May 1.— STS. PHILIP and JAMES, Apostles. 

hilip was one of the first chosen disciples of Christ. 
On the way from Judea to Galilee Our Lord found 
Philip, and said, "Follow Me." Philip straightway 
obeyed ; and then in his zeal and charity sought to win 
Nathaniel also, saying, 4 4 We have found Him of Whom 
Moses and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth ; " 




MAY 1.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



251 



and when Nathaniel in wonder asked, " Can any good 
come out of Nazareth?" Philip simply answered, "Come 
and see," and brought him to Jesus. Another character- 
istic saying of this apostle is preserved for us by St. John. 
Christ in His last discourse had spoken of His Father ; and 
Philip exclaimed, in the fervor of his thirst for God, 
" Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough." 
St. James the Less, the author of an inspired epistle, 




was also one of the Twelve. St. Paul tells us that he was 
favored by a special apparition of Christ after the Resur- 
rection. On the dispersion of the apostles among the 
uations, St. James was left as Bishop of Jerusalem ; and 
even the Jews held in such high veneration his purity, 
mortification, and prayer, that they named him the Just. 
The earliest of Church historians has handed down many 
traditions of St. James's sanctity. He was always a virgin, 
says Hegesippus, and consecrated to God. He drank no 
wine, wore no sandals on his feet, and but a single gar- 
ment on his body. He prostrated himself so much in 
prayer that the skin of his knees was hardened like a 



252 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 2. 



camel's hoof. The Jews, it is said, used out of respect to 
touch the hem of his garment. He was indeed a living 
proof of his own words, u The wisdom that is from above 
first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, full of mercy 
and good fruits. " He sat beside St. Peter and St. Paul at 
the Council of Jerusalem ; and when St. Paul at a later 
time escaped the fury of the Jews by appealing to Caesar, 
the people took vengeance on James, and crying, "The 
just one hath erred," stoned him to death. 

Reflection. — The Church commemorates on the same 
day Sts. Philip and James, whose bodies lie side by side at 
Kome. They represent to us two aspects of Christian holi- 
ness. The first preaches faith, the second works ; the one 
holy aspirations, the other purity of heart. 

May 2 ST. ATHANASIUS, Bishop. 

YT th an asius was born in Egypt towards the end of 



(%7<r-"-i the third century, and was from his youth pious, 
learned, and deeply versed in the sacred writings, as be- 
fitted one whom God had chosen to be the champion and 
defender of His Church against the Arian heresy. Though 
only a deacon, he was chosen by his bishop to go with him 
to the Council of Mceea, a.d. 325, and attracted the atten- 
tion of all by the learning and ability with which he 
defended the Faith. A few months later, he became Pa- 
triarch of Alexandria, and for forty-six years he bore, 
often well-nigh alone, the whole brunt of the Arian assault. 
On the refusal of the Saint to restore Arius to Catholic 
communion, the emperor ordered the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople to do so. The wretched heresiarch took an 
oath that he had always believed as the Church believes ; 
and the patriarch, after vainly using every effort to move 
the emperor, had recourse to fasting and prayer, that God 
would avert from the Church the frightful sacrilege. The 
day came for the solemn entrance of Arius into the great 




MAY 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



253 



church of Sancta Sophia. The heresiarch and his party set 
out glad and in triumph. But before he reached the 
church, death smote him swiftly and awfully, and the 
dreaded sacrilege was averted. St. Athanasius stood un- 
moved against four Koman emperors ; was banished five 
times ; was the butt of every insult, calumny, and wrong 
the Arians could devise, and lived in constant peril of 
death. Though firm as adamant in defence of the Faith, 
he was meek and humble, pleasant and winning in con- 




verse, beloved by his flock, umvearied in labors, in prayer, 
in mortifications, and in zeal for souls. In the year 373 
his stormy life closed in peace, rather that his people would 
have it so than that his enemies were weary of persecuting 
him. He left to the Church the whole and ancient Faith, 
defended and explained in writings rich in thought and 
learning, clear, keen, and stately in expression. He is 
honored as one of the greatest of the Doctors of the 
Church. 

Reflection. — The Catholic Faith, says St. Augustine, is 
more precious far than all the riches and treasures of 



254 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 3. 



earth ; more glorious and greater than all its honors, all 
its possessions. This it is which saves sinners, gives light 
to the blind, restores penitents, perfects the just, and is 
the crown of martyrs. 

May 3 THE DISCOVERY OF THE HOLY CROSS. 

y^S" od having restored peace to His Church, by exalting 
Constantine the Great to the imperial throne, that 
pious prince, who had triumphed over his enemies by the 
miraculous power of the cross, was very desirous of ex- 
pressing his veneration for the holy places which had been 
honored and sanctified by the presence and sufferings of 
our blessed Kedeemer on earth, and accordingly resolved 
to build a magnificent church in the city of Jerusalem. St. 
Helen, the emperor's mother, desiring to visit the holy 
places there, undertook a journey into Palestine in 326, 
though at that time near eighty years of age ; and on her 
arrival at Jerusalem was inspired with a great desire 
to find the identical cross on which Christ had suffered 
for our sins. But there was no mark or tradition, 
even amongst the Christians, to show where it lay. The 
heathens, out of an aversion to Christianity, had done" 
what they could to conceal the place where Our Saviour 
w T as buried, by heaping on it a great quantity of stones 
and rubbish, and building on it a temple to Venus. They 
had, moreover, erected a statue of Jupiter in the place 
where Our Saviour rose from the dead. Helen, to carry 
out her pious design, consulted every one at Jerusalem and 
near it whom she thought likely to assist her in finding 
out the cross ; and was credibly informed that, if she could 
find out the sepulchre, she would likewise find the instru- 
ments of the punishment ; it being the custom among the 
Jews to make a hole near the place where the body of a 
criminal was buried, and to throw into it whatever be- 
longed to his execution. The pious empress, therefore, 



MAY 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



255 



ordered the profane buildings to be pulled down, the 
statues to be broken in pieces, and the rubbish to be 
removed ; and, • upon digging to a great depth, the holy 
sepulchre, and near it three crosses, also the nails which 
had pierced Our Saviour's body, and the title which had 
been fixed to His cross, were found. By this discovery 
they knew that one of the three crosses was that which 
they were in quest of, and that the others belonged to the 
two malefactors between whom Our Saviour had been cruci- 




fied. But, as the title was found separate from the cross, 
it was difficult to distinguish which of the three crosses was 
that on which our divine Eedeemer consummated His sac- 
rifice for the salvation of the world. In this perplexity the 
holy Bishop Macarius, knowing that one of the principal 
ladies of the city lay extremely ill, suggested to the em- 
press to cause the three crosses to be carried to the sick 
person, not doubting but God would discover which was 
the cross they sought for. This being done, St. Macarius 
prayed that God would have regard to their faith, and, 
■after his prayer, applied the crosses singly to the patient. 



256 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 3. 



who was immediately and perfectly recovered by the touch 
of one of the three crosses, the other two having been tried 
without effect. St. Helen, full of joy at having found the 
treasure which she had so earnestly sought and so highly 
esteemed, built a church on the spot, and lodged the cross 
there with great veneration, having provided an extraor- 
dinarily rich case for it. She afterwards carried part of it 
to the Emperor Constantine, then at Constantinople, who 
received it with great veneration ; another part she sent or 
rather carried to Kome, to be placed in the church which 
she had built there, called Of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, 
where it remains to this day. The title was sent by St. 
Helen to the same church, and placed on the top of an 
arch, where it was found in a case of lead in 1492. The 
inscription in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin is in red letters, 
and the wood was whitened. Thus it was in 1492 ; but 
these colors are since faded. Also the words Jesus and 
Judceorum are eaten away. The board is nine, but must 
have been twelve, inches long. The main part of the cross 
St. Helen inclosed in a silver shrine, and committed it to the 
care of St. Macarius, that it might be delivered down to 
posterity, as an object of veneration. It was accordingly 
kept with singular care and respect in the magnificent 
church which she and her son built in Jerusalem. St. 
Paulinus relates that, though chips were almost daily cut 
off from it and given to devout persons, yet the sacred 
wood suffered thereby no diminution. It is affirmed by St. 
Cyril of Jerusalem, twenty-five years after the discovery, 
that pieces of the cross were spread all over the earth ; he 
compares this wonder to the miraculous feeding of five 
thousand men, as recorded in the Gospel. The discovery 
of the cross must have happened about the month of May, 
or early in the spring ; for St. Helen went the same year 
to Constantinople, and from thence to Eome, where she 
died in the arms of her son, on the 18th of August, 326. 



MAY 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



257 



Reflection.— In every pious undertaking the beginning 
merely does not suffice. "Whoso shall persevere unto the 
end, he shall be saved." 

May 4 ST. MONICA. 

/T^onica, the mother of St. Augustine, was born in 332. 
AJ-s After a girlhood of singular innocence and piety, 
she was given in marriage to Patritius, a pagan. She at 
once devoted herself to his conversion, praying for him 
always, and winning his reverence and love by the holi- 




ness of her life and her affectionate forbearance. She was 
rewarded by seeing him baptized a year before his death. 
When her son Augustine went astray in faith and man- 
ners her prayers and tears were incessant. She was once 
very urgent with a learned bishop that he would talk to 
her son in order to bring him to a better mind, but he de- 
clined, despairing of success with one at once so able and 
so headstrong. However, on witnessing her prayers and 
tears, he bade her be of good courage ; for it might not be 



258 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 5. 



that the child of those tears should perish. By going to 
Italy, Augustine could for a time free himself from his 
mother's importunities ; but he could not escape from her 
prayers, which encompassed him like the providence of 
God. She followed him to Italy, and there by his marvel- 
lous conversion her sorrow was turned into joy. At Ostia, 
on their homeward journey, as Augustine and his mother 
sat at a window conversing of the life of the blessed, she 
turned to him and said, " Son, there is nothing now I care 
for in this life. What I shall now do or why I am here, I 
know not. The one reason I had for wishing to linger in 
this life a little longer was that I might see you a Catholic 
Christian before I died. This has God granted me supera- 
bundantly in seeing you reject earthly happiness to become 
His servant. "What do I here ? " A few days afterwards 
she had an attack of fever, and died in the year 387. 

Reflection. — It is impossible to set any bounds to what 
persevering prayer may do. It gives man a share in the 
Divine Omnipotence. St. Augustine's soul lay bound in 
the chains of heresy and impurity, both of which had by 
long habit grown inveterate. They were broken by his 
mother's prayers. 



Dominican friar from his fifteenth year, Michael Ghis- 



lieri, as a simple religious, as inquisitor, as bishop, 
and as cardinal, was famous for his intrepid defence of the 
Church's faith and discipline, and for the spotless purity 
of his own life. His first care as Pope was to reform the 
Koman court and capital by the strict example of his 
household and the severe punishment of all offenders. He 
next endeavored to obtain from the Catholic powers the 
recognition of the Tridentine decrees, two of which he 
urgently enforced — the residence of bishops, and the estab 
Jishment of diocesan seminaries, He revised the Missal 



May 5.— ST. PIUS V. 




MAY 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



259 



and Breviary, and reformed the ecclesiastical music. Nor 
was he less active in protecting the Church without. We 
s ee him at the same time supporting the Catholic King of 
France against the Huguenot rebels, encouraging Mary- 
Queen of Scots, in the bitterness of her captivity, and ex- 
communicating her rival the usurper Elizabeth, when the 
best blood of England had flowed upon the scaffold, and 
the measure of her crimes was full. But it was at Lepanto 
that the Saint's power was most manifest : there, in 
October, 1571, by the holy league which he had formed, 
but still more by his prayers to the great Mother of God, 




the aged Pontiff crushed the Ottoman forces, and saved 
Christendom from the Turk. Six months later, St. Pius 
died, having reigned but six years. St. Pius was accus- 
tomed to kiss the feet of his crucifix on leaving or entering 
his room. One day the feet moved away from his lips. 
Sorrow filled his heart, and he made acts of contrition, 
fearing that he must have committed some secret offence, 
but still he could not kiss the feet. It was afterwards 
found that they had been poisoned by an enemy. 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 6 



Reflection. — 1 'Thy cross, 0 Lord, is the source of all 
blessings, the cause of all graces : by it the faithful find 
strength in weakness, glory in shame, life in death." — St. 
Leo. 

May 6.— ST. JOHN BEFORE THE LATIN GATE. 

IN the year 95, St. John, who was the only surviving 
apostle, and governed all the churches of Asia, was 
apprehended at Ephesus, and sent prisoner to Rome. The 




Emperor Domitian did not relent at the sight of the vener- 
able old man, but condemned him to be cast into a caldron 
of boiling oil. The martyr doubtless heard, with great joy, 
this barbarous sentence ; the most cruel torments seemed 
to him light and most agreeable, because they would, he 
hoped, unite him forever to his divine Master and Saviour. 
But God accepted his will and crowned his desire ; He 
conferred on him the honor and merit of martyrdom, but 
suspended the operation of the fire, as He had formerly 
preserved the three children from hurt in the Babylonian 



MAY 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



261 



furnace. The seething oil was changed in his regard into 
an invigorating bath, and the Saint came out more re- 
freshed than when he had entered the caldron. Domitian 
saw this miracle without drawing from it the least advan- 
tage, but remained hardened in his iniquity. However, he 
contented himself after this with banishing the holy apostle 
into the little island of Patmos. St. John returned to 
Ephesus, in the reign of Nerva, who by mildness, during 
his short reign of one year and four months, labored to 
restore the faded lustre of the Eoman Empire. This 
glorious triumph of St. John happened without the gate 
of Rome called Latina. A church which since has always 
borne this title was consecrated in the same place in 
memory of this miracle, under the first Christian em- 
perors. 

Reflection. — St. John suffered above the other Saints a 
martyrdom of love, being a martyr, and more than a 
martyr, at the foot of the cross of his divine Master. All 
his sufferings were by love and compassion imprinted in 
his soul, and thus shared by him. O singular happiness, 
to have stood under the cross of Christ ! O extraordinary 
privilege, to have suffered martyrdom in the person of 
Jesus, and been eye-witness of all He did or endured ! If 
nature revolt within us against suffering, let us call to 
mind those words of the divine Master: "Thou knowest 
not now wherefore ; but thou shalt know hereafter." 

May 7.— ST. STANISLAS, Bishop, Martyr. 

£^£tanislas was born in answer to prayer when his 
parents were advanced in age. Out of gratitude 
they educated him for the Church, and from a holy priest 
he became in time Bishop of Cracow. Boleslas II. was 
then King of Poland — a prince of good disposition, but 
spoilt by a long course of victory and success. After 
many acts of lust and cruelty, he outraged the whole 



LIT fLE fiC^OKfAi 



[may t. 



kingdom by carrying off the wife of one of his nobles. 
Against this public scandal the chaste and gentle bishop 
alone raised his voice. Having commended the matter to 
God, he went down to the palace and openly rebuked the 
king for his crime against God and his subjects, and 
threatened to excommunicate him if he persisted in his 
sin. To slander the Saint's character, Boleslas suborned 
the nephews of one Paul, lately dead, to swear that their 
uncle had never been paid for land bought by the bishop 




for the Church. The Saint stood fearlessly before the 
king's tribunal, though all his witnesses forsook him, and 
guaranteed to bring the dead man to witness for him 
within three days. On the third day, after many prayers 
and tears, he raised Paul to life, and led him in his grave- 
clothes before the king. Boleslas made a show for a while 
of a better life. Soon, however, he relapsed into the most 
scandalous excesses, and the bishop, finding all remon- 
strance useless, pronounced the sentence of excommunica- 
tion. In defiance of the censure, on May 8, 1079, the king 
went down to a chapel where the bishop himself was 



MAY 8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



269 



saying Mass, and sent in three companies of soldiers to dis- 
patch him at the altar. Each in turn came out, saying 
they had been scared by a light from heaven. Then the 
king rushed in and slew the Saint at the altar with his 
own hand. 

Reflection. — The safest correction of vice is a blameless 
life. Yet there are times when silence would make us 
answerable for the sins of others. At such times let us, 
in the name of God, rebuke the offender without fear. 

May 8.— THE APPARITION OF ST. MICHAEL THE 
ARCHANGEL. 

IT is manifest, from the Holy Scriptures, that God is 
pleased to make frequent use of the ministry of the 
heavenly spirits in the dispensations of His providence in 
this world, and especially towards man. Hence the name 
of Angel (which is not properly a denomination of nature, 
but office) has been appropriated to them. The angels are 
all pure spirits ; they are, by a property of their nature, 
immortal, as every spirit is. They have the power of 
moving or conveying themselves from place to place, and 
such is their activity that it is not easy for us to conceive 
it. Among the holy archangels, there are particularly 
distinguished in Holy "Writ Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and 
Eaphael. St. Michael, whom the Church honors this day, 
was the prince of the faithful angels who opposed Lucifer 
and his associates in their revolt against God. As the 
devil is the sworn enemy of God's holy Church, St. Michael 
is its special protector against his assaults and stratagems. 
This holy archangel has ever been honored in the Christian 
Church as her guardian under God, and as the protector 
of the faithful ; for God is pleased to employ the zeal and 
charity of the good angels and their leader against the 
malice of the devil. To thank His adorable goodness for 
this benefit of His merciful providence is this festival in- 



LITTLE PICToKIAL 



[may 8. 



stituted by the Church in honor of the good angels, in 
which devotion she has been encouraged by several appari- 
tions of this glorious archangel. Among others, it is re- 
corded that St. Michael, in a vision, admonished the Bishop 
of Siponto to build a church in his honor on Mount Gar- 
gano, near Manfredonia, in the kingdom of Naples. When 
the Emperor Otho III. had, contrary to his word, put to 
death, for rebellion, Crescentius, a Eoman senator, being 
touched with remorse he cast himself at the feet of St. 




Eomuald, who, in satisfaction for his crime, enjoined him 
to walk barefoot, on a penitential pilgrimage, to St. 
Michael's on Mount Gargano, which penance he performed 
in 1002. It is mentioned in particular of this special guard- 
ian and protector of the Church that, in the persecution of 
Antichrist, he will powerfully stand up in her defence : 
" At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who 
standeth for the children of thy people." 

Reflection. — St. Mk v ael is not only the protector of the 
Church, but of every faithful soul. He defeated the devil 



MAY 9.] 



LIVES THE SAINTS. 



by humility : we are enlisted in the same warfare. His 
arms were humility and ardent love of God : the same 
must be our weapons. We ought to regard this archangel 
as our leader under God ; and, courageously resisting the 
devil in all his assaults, to cry out, Who can be compared 
to God ? 

May 9. — ST. GREGORY NAZIANZEN. 

/Gregory was born of saintly parents, and was the 
chosen friend of St. Basil. They studied together 
at Athens, turned at the same time from the fairest worldly 
prospects, and for some years lived together in seclusion, 
self-discipline, and toil. Gregory was raised, almost by 
force, to the priesthood ; and was in time made Bishop of 
Nazianzum by St. Basil, who had become Archbishop of 
Csesarea. When he was fifty years old, he was chosen, for 
his rare gifts and his conciliatory disposition, to be Patri- 
arch of Constantinople, then distracted and laid w T aste by 
Arian and other heretics. In that city he labored with 
wonderful success. The Arians were so irritated at the 
decay of their heresy that they pursued the Saint with out- 
rage, calumny, and violence, and at length resolved to take 
away his life. For this purpose they chose a resolute young- 
man, who readily undertook the sacrilegious commission. 
But God did not allow him to carry it out. He was 
touched w 7 ith remorse, and cast himself at the Saint's feet, 
avowing his sinful intent. St. Gregory at once forgave 
him, treated him with all kindness, and received him 
amongst his friends, to the wonder and edification of the 
whole city, and to the confusion of the heretics, whose 
crime had served only as a foil to the virtue of the Saint. 
St. Jerome boasts that he had sat at his feet, and calls him 
his master and his catechist in Holy Scripture. But his 
lowliness, his austerities, the insignificance of his person, 
and above all his very success, drew down on him the 
hatred of the enemies of the Faith. He w r as persecuted by 



JjT£TIM PWf ORIAL 



[may 10. 



the magistrates, stoned by the rabble, and thwarted and 
deserted even by his brother bishops. During the second 
General Council he resigned his see, hoping thus to restore 



peace to the tormented city, and retired to his native town, 
where he died a.d. 390. He was a graceful poet, a preacher 
at once eloquent and solid ; and as a champion of the Faith 
so well equipped, so strenuous, and so exact, that he is 
called St. Gregory the Theologian. 

Reflection. — " We must overcome our enemies," said St. 
Gregory, " by gentleness; win them over by forbearance. 
Let them be punished by their own conscience, not by our 
wrath. Let us not at once wither the fig-tree, from which 
a more skilful gardener may yet entice fruit." 

May 10.— ST. ANTONINUS, Bishop. 
t "7"T* ntoninus, or Little Antony, as he was called from his 



small stature, was born at Florence in 1389. After 
a childhood of singular holiness, he begged to be admitted 
into the Dominican house at Fiesole ; but the Superior, to 





MAY 10.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



267 



test his sincerity and perseverance, told him he must first 
learn by heart the book of the Decretals, containing several 
hundred pages. This apparently impossible task was ac- 
complished within twelve months ; and Antoninus received 
the coveted habit in his sixteenth year. "While still very 
young, he filled several important posts of his Order, and 
was consulted on questions of difficulty by the most learned 
men of his day ; being known, for his wonderful prudence, 
as "the Counsellor." He wrote several works on theology 
and history, and sat as Papal Theologian at the Council of 
Florence. In 1446 he was compelled to accept the arch- 
bishopric of that city ; and in this dignity earned for him- 
self the title of u the Father of the Poor," for all he had 
was at their disposal. St. Antoninus never refused an alms 
which was asked in the name of God. When he had no 




money, he gave his clothes/ shoes, or furniture. One day, 
being sent by the Florentines to the Pope, as he approached 
Rome a beggar came up to him almost naked, and asked 
him for an alms for Christ's sake. Outdoing St. Martin, 
Antoninus gave him his whole cloak. When he entered the 



268 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 11. 



city, another was given him ; by whom he knew not. His 
household consisted of only six persons ; his palace con- 
tained no plate or costly furniture, and was often nearly 
destitute of the necessaries of life. His one mule was fre- 
quently sold for the relief of the poor, when it would be 
bought back for him by some wealthy citizen. He died 
embracing the crucifix, May 2d, 1459, often repeating the 
words, "To serve God is to reign." 

Reflection. — " Alms-deeds," says St. Augustine, " com- 
prise every kind of service rendered to our neighbor who 
needs such assistance. He who supports a lame man 
bestows an alms on him with his feet ; he who guides a 
blind man does him a charity with his eyes ; he who car- 
ries an invalid or an old man upon his shoulders imparts 
to him an alms of his strength. Hence none are so poor 
but they may bestow an alms on the wealthiest man in the 
world." 

May 11.— ST. MAMMERTUS, Archbishop. 
^^t. Mammertus, Archbishop of Vienne in Dauphine, 



was a prelate renowned for his sanctity, learning, 
and miracles. He instituted in his diocese the fasts and 
supplications called the Rogations, on the following occa- 
sions. Almighty God, to punish the sins of the people, 
visited them with wars and other public calamities, and 
awaked them from their spiritual lethargy by the terrors of 
earthquakes, fires, and ravenous wild beasts, w T hich last 
were sometimes seen in the very market-place of cities. 
These evils the impious ascribed to blind chance ; but re- 
ligious and prudent persons considered them as tokens of 
the divine anger, which threatened their entire destruction. 
Amidst these scourges, St. Mammertus received a token of 
the divine mercy. A terrible fire happened in the city of 
Vienne, which baffled the efforts of men ; but by the 
prayers of the good bishop the fire on a sudden went out, 




MAY 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



269 



This miracle strongly affected the minds of the people. 
The holy prelate took this opportunity to make them 
sensible of the necessity and efficacy of devout prayer, and 
formed a pious design of instituting an annual fast and 



supplication of three days, in which all the faithful should 
join, with sincere compunction of heart, to appease the 
divine indignation by fasting, prayer, tears, and the con- 
fession of sins. The Church of Auvergne, of which St. 
Sidonius was bishop, adopted this pious institution before 
the year 475, and it became in a very short time a uni- 
versal practice. St. Mammertus died about the year 477. 

Reflection. — " Know ye that the Lord will hear your 
prayers, if you continue with perseverance in fastings and 
prayers in the sight of the Lord " (Judith iv. 11). 

May 12.- ST. EPIPHANIUS, Archbishop. 

Epiphanius was born about the year 310, in Pales- 



tine. In his youth he began the study of the Holy 
Scriptures, embraced a monastic life, and went into Egypt 





270 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 12. 



to perfect himself in the exercises of that state, in the 
deserts of that country. He returned to Palestine about 
the year 333, and built a monastery near the place of his 
birth. His labors in the exercise of virtue seemed to some 
to surpass his strength ; but his apology always was : 
" God gives not the kingdom of heaven but on condition 
that we labor ; and all we can do bears no proportion to 
such a crown." To his corporal austerities he added an 
indefatigable application to prayer and study. Most books 




then in vogue passed through his hands ; and he improved 
himself very much in learning by his travels into many 
parts. 

Although the skilful director of many others, St. Epi- 
phanius took the great St. Hilarion as his master in a 
spiritual life, and enjoyed the happiness of his direction 
and intimate acquaintance from the year 333 to 356. The 
reputation of his virtue made St. Epiphanius known to 
distant countries, and about the year 367 he was chosen 
Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus. But he still wore the mo- 
nastic habit, and continued to govern his monastery iu 



MAY 13.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



271 



Palestine, which he visited from time to time. He some- 
times relaxed his austerities in favor of hospitality, pre- 
ferring charity to abstinence. No one surpassed him in 
tenderness and charity to the poor. The veneration which 
all men had for his sanctity exempted him from the per- 
secution of the Arian Emperor Yalens. In 376 he under- 
took a journey to Antioch in the hope of converting Vitalis, 
the Apollinarist bishop ; and in 382 he accompanied St. 
Paulinus from that city to Eome, where they lodged at the 
house of St. Paula ; our Saint in return entertained her 
afterward ten days in Cyprus in 385. The very name of 
an error in faith, or the shadow of danger of evil, affrighted 
him, and the Saint fell into some mistakes on certain occa- 
sions, which proceeded from zeal and simplicity. He was 
on his way back to Salamis, after a short absence, when he 
died in 403, having been bishop thirty-six years. 

Reflection. — "In this is charity : not as though we had 
loved God, but because He hath first loved us." 

May 13.— ST. JOHN THE SILENT. 

F^ohn was born of a noble family at Nicopolis, in Armenia, 
in the year 454 ; but he derived from the virtue of his 
parents a much more illustrious nobility than that of their 
pedigree. After their death, he built at Nicopolis a church 
in honor of the Blessed Virgin, as also a monastery, in 
which, with ten fervent companions, he shut himself up 
when only eighteen years of age, with a view of making 
the salvation and most perfect sanctification of his soul his 
only and earnest pursuit. Not only to shun the danger of 
sin by the tongue, but also out of sincere humility and con- 
tempt of himself, and the love of interior recollection and 
prayer, he very seldom spoke ; and when obliged to, it was 
always in a very few words, and with great discretion. 
To his extreme affliction, when he was only twenty-eight 
years old, the Archbishop of Sebaste obliged him to quit 



272 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[may 



his retreat, and ordained him Bishop of Colonian in Arme- 
nia, in 482. In this dignity John preserved always the 
same spirit, and, as much as was compatible w r ith the 
duties of his charge, continued his monastic austerities and 
exercises. Whilst he w 7 as watching one night in prayer, 
he saw before him a bright cross formed in the air, and 
heard a voice which said to him, " If thou desirest to be 
saved, follow this light." It seemed to move before him, 
and at length point out to the monastery of St. Sabas. 




Being satisfied what the sacrifice was which God required 
at his hands, he found means to abdicate the episcopal charge, 
and retired to the neighboring monastery of St. Sabas, 
which at that time contained one hundred and fifty fervent 
monks. St. John was then thirty-eight years old. After 
living there unknown for some years, fetching w r ater, car- 
rying stones, and doing other menial work, St. Sabas, 
judging him worthy to be promoted to the priesthood, 
presented him to the Patriarch Elias. St. John took the 
patriarch aside, and, having obtained from him a promise 
of secrecy, said, "Father, I have been ordained bishop; 



MAY 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



but on account of the multitude of my sins have fled, and 
am come into this desert to wait the visit of the Lord." 
The patriarch was startled, but God revealed to St. Sabas 
the state of the affair, whereupon, calling for John, he * 
complained to him of his unkindness in concealing the 
matter from him. Finding himself discovered, John 
wished to quit the monastery, nor could St. Sabas prevail 
on him to stay, but on a promise never to divulge the 
secret. In the year 503, St. John withdrew into a neighbor- 
ing wilderness, but in 510 went back to the monastery, and 
confined himself for forty years to his cell, St. John, by 
his example and counsels, conducted many fervent souls to 
God, and continued to emulate, as much as this mortal 
state will allow, the glorious employment of the heavenly 
spirits in an uninterrupted exercise of love and praise, till 
he passed to their blessed company, soon after the year 
558 ; having lived seventy-six years in the desert, which 
had only been interrupted by the nine years of his episco- 
pal dignity. 

Reflection. — A love of Christian silence is a proof that a 
soul makes it her chief est delight to be occupied on God, 
and finds no comfort like that of conversing with Him. 
This is the paradise of all devout souls. 

May 14 ST. PACHOMIUS, Abbot. 

IN the beginning of the fourth century, great levies of 
troops were made throughout Egypt for the service 
of the Roman emperor. Among the recruits was Pacho- 
mius, a young heathen, then in his twenty-first year. On 
his way down the Nile he passed a village, whose inhabi- 
tants gave him food and money. Marvelling at this kind- 
ness, Pachomius was told they were Christians, and hoped 
for a reward in the life to come. He then prayed God to 
show him the truth, and promised to devote his life to His 
service. On being discharged, he returned to a Christian 



LITTLE PICTOMAL 



[may 14. 



village in Egypt, where he was instructed and baptized. 
Instead of going home, he sought Palemon, an aged soli- 
tary, to learn from him a perfect life, and with great joy 
embraced the most severe austerities. Their food was 




bread and water, once a day in summer, and once in two 
days in winter ; sometimes they added herbs, but mixed 
ashes with them. They only slept one hour each night, 
and this short repose Pachomius took sitting upright with- 
out support. Three times God revealed to him that he was 
to found a religious order at Tabenna ; and an angel gave 
him a rule of life. Trusting in God, he built a monastery, 
although he had no disciples ; but vast multitudes soon 
flocked to him, and he trained them in perfect detachment 
from creatures and from self. One day a monk, by dint of 
great exertions, contrived to make two mats instead of the 
one which w T as the usual daily task, and set them both out 
in front of his cell, that Pachomius might see how diligent 
he had been. But the Saint, perceiving the vainglory 
which had prompted the act, said, "This brother has 
taken a great deal of pains from morning till night to give 



MAY 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



his work to the devil." Then, to cure him of his delusion, 
Pachomius imposed on him as a penance to keep his cell 
for five months and to taste no food but bread and water. 
His visions and miracles were innumerable, and he read 
all hearts. His holy death occurred in 348. 

Reflection. — "To live in great simplicity," said St. 
Pachomius, ' ' and in a wise ignorance, is exceeding wise. " 

May 15.— STS. PETER and DIONYSIA. 

t T J N the Decian persecution the blood of the Christians 
flowed at Lampsacus, a city of Asia Minor. St. 
Peter was the first who was led before the proconsul and 
condemned to die for the name of Christ. Young though 
he was, he went joyfully to his torments. He was bound 




to a wheel by iron chains, and his bones were broken, but 
he raised his eyes to heaven with a smiling countenance 
and said, "I give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, be- 
cause Thou hast given me patience, and made me victori- 
ous over the tyrant. " The proconsul saw how little suffer- 



LITTLE PICTOBIAL 



[may 16. 



ing availed, and ordered the martyr to be beheaded. But 
a little later, in the same city, the virgin Dionysia showed 
a like eagerness to suffer. St. Dionysia gained the crown 
which an apostate lost, and his history may teach us that 
those who lose Christ rather than suffer with Him lose 
all. With the strength that was left he cried out, U I 
never was a Christian. I sacrifice to the gods." There- 
fore he was taken down, and he offered sacrifice. But he 
was possessed by the devil, whom he had chosen for his 
master. He fell to the earth in a fit, bit out his tongue, 
and so expired. He escaped a little pain, and instead he 
went to the endless torments of hell, and forfeited eternal 
rest. u O wretched man!" Dionysia cried, u why have 
you feared a little suffering and chosen eternal pain in- 
stead ? " She was seized and led away to horrible outrage, 
but her angel guardian appeared by her side and protected 
the spouse of Christ. Escaping from prison, she still 
burned with the desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. 
She threw herself upon the bodies of the martyrs, saying, 
' ' 1 would fain die with you on earth, that I may live with 
you in heaven." And Christ, Who is the crown of virgins 
and the strength of martyrs, gave her the desire of her 
heart. 

Reflection. — The martyrs were even like us, with natures 
which shrank from suffering. They were patient under 
it because they looked to the eternal recompense, and en- 
dured as seeing Him Who is invisible. 

May 16.— ST. JOHN NEPOMUCEN. 

t. John was born, in answer to prayer, a.d. 1330, of 
poor parents, at Nepomuc in Bohemia. In grati- 
tude they consecrated him to God ; and his holy life as a 
priest led to his appointment as chaplain to the court of 
the Emperor Wenceslas, where he converted numbers by 
his preaching and example. Amongst those who sought 




MAY 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



his advice was the empress, who suffered much from her 
husband's unfounded jealousy. St. John taught her to 
bear her cross with joy ; but her piety only incensed the 
emperor, and he tried to extort her confessions from the 
Saint. He threw St. John into a dungeon, but gained 
nothing ; then, inviting him to his palace, he promised him 
riches if he would yield, and threatened death if he re- 
fused. The Saint was silent. He was racked and burnt 
with torches ; but no words, save Jesus and Mary, fell 




from his lips. At last set free, he spent his time in preach- 
ing, and preparing for the death he knew to be at hand. 
On Ascension Eve, May 16, Wenceslas, after a final and 
fruitless attempt to move his constancy, ordered him to be 
cast into the river, and that night the martyr's hands and 
feet were bound, and he was thrown from the bridge of 
Prague. As he died, a heavenly light shining on the water 
discovered the body, which was buried with the honors 
due to a Saint. A few years later, Wenceslas was deposed 
by his own subjects, and died an impenitent and miserable 
death. In 1618 the Calvinist and Hussite soldiers of the 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 11. 



Protestant Elector Frederick tried repeatedly to demolish 
the shrine of St. John at Prague. Each attempt was 
miraculously frustrated ; and once the persons engaged in 
the sacrilege, among whom was an Englishman, were 
killed on the spot. In 1620 the imperial troops recovered 
the town by a victory which was ascribed to the Saint's 
intercession, as he was seen on the eve of the battle, 
radiant with glory, guarding the cathedral. When his 
shrine was opened, three hundred and thirty years after 
his decease, the flesh had disappeared, and one member 
alone remained incorrupt, the tongue ; thus still, in silence, 
giving glory to God. 

Reflection. — St. John, who by his invincible sacramental 
silence won his crown, teaches us to prefer torture and 
death to offending the Creator with our tongue. How 
many times each day do we forfeit grace and strength by 
sins of speech ! 

May 17 ST. PASCHAL BAYLON. 

Brom a child Paschal seems to have been marked out 
for the service of God ; and amidst his daily labors 
be found time to instruct and evangelize the rude herds- 
men who kept their flocks on the hills of Aragon. At the 
age of twenty-four he entered the Franciscan Order, in 
which, however, he remained, from humility, a simple lay- 
brother, and occupied himself, by preference, with the 
roughest and most servile tasks. He was distinguished by 
an ardent love and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He 
would spend hours on his knees before the tabernacle — 
often he was raised from the ground in the fervor of his 
prayer — and there, from the very and eternal Truth, he 
drew such stores of wisdom that, unlettered as he was, he 
was counted by all a master in theology and spiritual sci- 
ence. Shortly after his profession he was called to Paris 
on business connected with his Order. The journey was 



MAY 17.] 



LI YES OF THE SAINTS. 



279 



full of peril, owing to the hostility of the Huguenots, who 
were numerous at the time in the south of France ; and on 
four separate occasions Paschal was in imminent danger of 
death at the hands of the heretics. But it was not God's 
will that His servant should obtain the crown of martyr- 
dom which, though judging himself all unworthy of it, he 
so earnestly desired, and he returned in safety to his con- 
vent, where he died in the odor of sanctity, May 15, 1592. 

As Paschal was watching his sheep on the mountain- 
side, he heard the consecration bell ring out from a church 




in the valley below, where the villagers were assembled for 
Mass. The Saint fell on his knees, when suddenly there 
stood before him an angel of God, bearing in his hands the 
Sacred Host, and offering it for his adoration. Learn from 
this how pleasing to Jesus Christ are those who honor Him 
in this great mystery of His love ; and how to them espe- 
cially this promise is fulfilled : " I will not leave you 
orphans : I will come unto you " (John xiv. 18). 

Reflection. — St. Paschal teaches us never to suffer a day 
to pass without visiting Jesus in the narrow chamber where 



280 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 18. 



He, Whom the heaven itself cannot contain, abides day 
and night for our sake. 

May 18. — ST. VENANTIUS, Martyr. 

C^ t. Venantius was born at Camerino in Italy, and at 
J^-^ the age of fifteen was seized as a Christian and 
carried before a judge. As it was found impossible to 
shake his constancy either by threats or promises, he was 
condemned to be scourged, but was miraculously saved by 
an angel. He was then burnt with torches and hung over 
a low fire that he might be suffocated by the smoke. The 
judge's secretary, admiring the steadfastness of the Saint, 




and seeing an angel robed in white, who trampled out the 
fire and again set free the youthful martyr, proclaimed 
his faith in Christ, was baptized with his whole family, and 
shortly after won the martyr's crown himself. Venantius 
was then carried before the governor, who, unable to make 
him renounce his faith, cast him into prison with an apos- 
tate, who vainly strove to tempt him. The governor then 
ordered his teeth and jaws to be broken, and had him 



MAY 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



281 



thrown into a furnace, from which the angel once more 
delivered him. The Saint was again led before the judge, 
who at sight of him fell headlong from his seat and ex- 
pired, crying, " The God of Venantius is the true God ; let 
us destroy our idols." This circumstance being told to the 
governor, he ordered Venantius to be thrown to the lions ; 
but these brutes, forgetting their natural ferocity, crouched 
at the feet of the Saint. Then, by order of the tyrant, the 
young martyr was dragged through a heap of brambles and 
thorns, but again God manifested the glory of His servant ; 
the soldiers suffering from thirst, the Saint knelt on a rock 
and signed it with a cross, when immediately a jet of clear, 
cool water spurted up from the spot. This miracle con- 
verted many of those who beheld it, whereupon the gov- 
ernor had Yenantius and his converts beheaded together 
in the year 250. The bodies of these martyrs are kept in 
the church at Camerino which bears the Saint's name. 

Reflection. — Love of suffering marks the most perfect 
degree in the love of God. Our Lord Himself was consumed 
with the desire to suffer, because He burnt with the love of 
God. We must begin with patience and detachment. At 
last we shall learn to love the sufferings which conform us 
to the Passion of our Kedeemer. 

May 19 ST. PETER CELESTINE. 

s a child, Peter had visions of our blessed Lady, and 
of the angels and saints. They encouraged him in 
his prayer, and chided him when he fell into any fault. 
His mother, though only a poor widow, put him to school, 
feeling sure that he would one day be a Saint. At the age 
of twenty, he left his home in Apulia to live in a mountain 
solitude. Here he passed three years, assaulted by the 
evil spirits and beset with temptations of the flesh, but 
consoled by angels' visits. After this his seclusion was 
invaded by disciples, who refused to be sent away ; and the 




282 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[may 19. 



rule of life which he gave them formed the foundation of 
the Celestine Order. Angels assisted in the church which 
Peter built ; unseen bells rang peals of surpassing sweet 
ness, and heavenly music filled the sanctuary when he 
offered the Holy Sacrifice. Suddenly he found himself torn 
from his loved solitude by his election to the Papal throne. 
Resistance was of no avail. He took the name of Celestine, 
to remind him of the heaven he was leaving and for which 
lie sighed, and was consecrated at Aquila. After a reign 




of four months, Peter summoned the cardinals to his pres- 
ence, and solemnly resigned his trust. St. Peter built 
himself a boarded cell in his palace, and there continued 
his hermit's life ; and when, lest his simplicity might be 
taken advantage of to distract the peace of the Church, he 
was put under guard, he said, " I desired nothing but a 
cell, and a cell they have given me." There he enjoyed 
his former loving intimacy with the saints and angels, and 
sang the Divine praises almost continually. At length, 
on Whit-Sunday, he told his guards he should die within 
the week, and immediately fell ill. He received the last 



MAY &<).] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



sacraments ; and the following Saturday, as he finished 
the concluding verse of Lauds, "Let every spirit bless 
the Lord ! " he closed his eyes to this world and opened 
them to the vision of God. 

Reflection. — "Whoso," says the Imitation of Christ, 
H withdraweth himself from acquaintances and friends, to 
him will God draw near with His holy angels." 

May 20.— ST. BERNARDINE OF SIENA. 

IN 1408 St. Yincent Ferrer once suddenly interrupted 
his sermon to declare that there was among his 
hearers a young Franciscan who would be one day a 




greater preacher than himself, and would be set before 
him in honor by the Church. This unknown friar was 
Bernardine. Of noble birth, he had spent his youth in 
works of mercy, and had then entered religion. Owing to 
a defective utterance, his success as a preacher at first 
seemed doubtful, but, by the prayers of Our Lady, this 
obstacle was miraculously removed, and Bernardine began 



284 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 21. 



an apostolate which lasted thirty-eight years. By his 
burning words and by the power of the Holy Name of 
Jesus, which he displayed on a tablet at the end of his ser- 
mons, he obtained miraculous conversions, and reformed 
the greater part of Italy. But this success had to be 
exalted by the cross. The Saint was denounced as a 
heretic and his devotion as idolatrous. After many trials 
he lived to see his innocence proved, and a lasting memo- 
rial of his work established in a church. The Feast of the 
Holy Name commemorates at once his sufferings and his 
triumph. He died on Ascension Eve, 1444, while his 
brethren were chanting the antiphon, i ' Father, I have 
manifested Thy Name to men." St. Bernardine, when a 
youth, undertook the charge of a holy old woman, a rela- 
tion of his, who had been left destitute. She was blind 
and bedridden, and during her long illness could only 
utter the Holy Name. The Saint watched over her till she 
died, and thus learned the devotion of his life. 

Reflection. — Let us learn from the life of St. Bernardine 

the power of the Holy Name in life and death. 

May 21.— ST. HOSPITIUS, Recluse. 

^^T. Hospitius shut himself up in the ruins of an old 
tower near Villafranca, one league from Nice in 
Provence. He girded himself with a heavy iron chain and 
lived on bread and dates only. During Lent he redoubled 
his austerities, and, in order to conform his life more 
closely to that of the anchorites of Egypt, ate nothing but 
roots. For his great virtues Heaven honored him with 
the gifts of prophecy and of miracles. He foretold the 
ravages which the Lombards would make in Gaul. These 
barbarians, having come to the tower in w T hich Hospitius 
lived, and seeing the chain with which he was bound, mis- 
took him for some criminal who was there imprisoned. 
On questioning the Saint, he acknowledged that he was a 



MAY 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



285 



great sinner and unworthy to live. Whereupon one of the 
soldiers lifted his sword to strike him ; but God did not 
desert His faithful servant : the soldier's arm stiffened and 
became numb, and it was not until Hospitius made the 
sign of the cross over it that the man recovered the use 
of it. The soldier embraced Christianity, renounced the 
world, and passed the rest of his days in serving God. 
When our Saint felt that his last hour was nearing, he took 




off his chain and knelt in prayer for a loug time. Then, 
stretching himself on a little bank of earth, he calmly gave 
up his soul to God, on the 21st of May, 681. 

Reflection. — If we do not love penitence for its own 
sake, let us love it on account of our sins ; for we should 
" work out our salvation in fear and trembling." 



May 22.— ST. YVO, Confessor. 

^^T. Yvo Helori, descended from a noble and virtuous 
family near Treguier in Brittany, was born in 1253. 
At fourteen years of age he went to Paris, and afterwards 



236 



little pictorial 



[may 2a. 



to Orleans, to pursue his studies. His mother was wont 
frequently to say to him that he ought so to live as became 
a Saint, to which his answer always was, that he hoped 
to be one. This resolution took deep root in his soul, and 
was a continual spur to virtue, and a check against the 
least shadow of any dangerous course. His time was 
chiefly divided between study and prayer; for his recrea- 
tion he visited the hospitals, where he attended the sick 




with great charity, and comforted them under the severe 
trials of their suffering condition. He made a private vow 
of perpetual chastity ; but this not being known, many 
honorable matches were proposed to him, which he mod- 
estly rejected as incompatible with his studious life. He 
long deliberated whether to embrace a religious or a 
clerical state ; but the desire of serving his neighbor de- 
termined him at length in favor of the latter. He wished, 
out of humility, to remain in the lesser orders ; but his 
bishop compelled him to receive the priesthood, — a step 
which cost him many tears, though he had qualified him- 
self for that sacred dignity by the most perfect purity of 



May 22.] 



LtVks OF THH SAINTS. 



mind and body, and by a long and fervent preparation. 
He was appointed ecclesiastical judge for the diocese of 
Rennes. St. Yvo protected the orphans and widows, de- 
fended the poor, and administered justice to all with an 
impartiality, application, and tenderness which gained him 
the good- will even of those who lost their causes. He 
was surnamed the advocate and lawyer of the poor. He 
built a house near his own for a hospital of the poor and 
sick ; he washed their feet, cleansed their ulcers, served 
them at table, and ate himself only the scraps which they 
had left. He distributed his corn, or the price for which 
he sold it, among the poor immediately after the harvest. 
When a certain person endeavored to persuade him to keep 
it some months, that he might sell it at a better price, he 
answered, " I know not whether I shall be then alive to 
give it." Another time the same person said to him, " I 
have gained a fifth by keeping my corn." " But I," re- 
plied the Saint, " a hundredfold by giving it immediately 
away." During the Lent of 1303 he felt his strength fail- 
ing him ; yet, far from abating anything in his austerities, 
he thought himself obliged to redouble his fervor in pro- 
portion as he advanced nearer to eternity. On the eve of 
the Ascension he preached to his people, said Mass, being 
upheld by two persons, and gave advice to all who ad- 
dressed themselves to him. After this he lay down on his 
bed, which was a hurdle of twigs plaited together, and re- 
ceived the last sacraments. From that moment he enter- 
tained himself with God alone, till his soul went to possess 
Him in His glory. His death happened on the 19th of May, 
1303, in the fiftieth year of his age. 

Reflection. — St. Yvo was a Saint amidst the dangers of 
the world ; but he preserved his virtue untainted only by 
arming himself carefully against them, by conversing as- 
siduously with God in prayer and holy meditation, and by 
most watchfully shunning the snares of bad company. 



m 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[may 23. 



Without this precaution ail the instructions of parents and 
all other means of virtue are ineffectual ; and the soul 
is sure to split against this rock which does not steer wide 
of it. 

May 23.— ST. JULIA, Virgin, Martyr. 

cSt. Julia was a noble virgin of Carthage, who, when 
)^ the city was taken by Genseric in 439, was sold for 
a slave to a pagan merchant of Syria named Eusebius. 




Under the most mortifying employments of her station, by 
cheerfulness and patience she found a happiness and com- 
fort which the world could not have afforded. All the 
time she was not employed in her master's business was 
devoted to prayer and reading books of piety. Her master, 
who was charmed with her fidelity and other virtues, 
thought proper to carry her with him on one of his voyages 
to Gaul. Having reached the northern part of Corsica, he 
cast anchor, and went on shore to join the pagans of the 
place in an idolatrous festival. Julia was left at some dis- 



May 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



tance, because she would not be defiled by the superstitious 
ceremonies which she openly reviled. Felix, the governor 
of the island, who was a bigoted pagan, asked who this 
woman was who dared to insult the gods. Eusebius in- 
formed him that she was a Christian, and that all his 
authority over her was too weak to prevail with her to re- 
nounce her religion, but that he found her so diligent and 
faithful he could not part with her. The governor offered 
him four of his best female slaves in exchange for her. 
But the merchant replied, " No ; all you are worth will not 
purchase her ; for I would freely lose the most valuable 
thing I have in the world rather than be deprived of her." 
However, the governor, while Eusebius was drunk and 
asleep, took upon him to compel her to sacrifice to his gods. 
He offered to procure her liberty if she would comply. 
The Saint made answer that she was as free as she desired 
to be as long as she was allowed to serve Jesus Christ. 
Felix, thinking himself derided by her undaunted and reso- 
lute air, in a transport of rage caused her to be struck 
on the face, and the hair of her head to be torn off, and, 
lastly, ordered her to be hanged on a cross till she expired. 
Certain monks of the isle of Gorgon carried off her body ; 
but in 763 Desiderius, King of Lombardy, removed her 
relics to Brescia, where her memory is celebrated with 
great devotion. 

Reflection. — St. Julia, whether free or a slave, whether 
in prosperity or in adversity, was equally fervent and de- 
vout. She adored all the sweet designs of Providence ; 
and far from complaining, she never ceased to praise and 
thank God under all His holy appointments, making them 
always the means of her virtue and sanctification. God, 
by an admirable chain of events, raised her by her fidelity 
to the honor of the saints, and to the dignity of a virgin 
and martyr. 



290 LITTLE pictorial [may H. 




May 24 STS. DONATIAN and ROGATIAN, Martyrs. 

here lived at Nantes an illustrious young nobleman 
named Donatian, who, having received the holy 
Sacrament of Kegeneration, led a most edifying life, and 
strove with much zeal to convert others to faith in Christ. 
His elder brother, Kogatian, was not able to resist the 
moving example of his piety and the force of his discourses, 
and desired to be baptized. But the bishop having with- 
drawn and concealed himself for fear of the persecution, 
he was not able to receive that sacrament, but was shortly 
after baptized in his blood ; for he declared himself a Chris- 
tian at a time when to embrace that sacred profession was 
to become a candidate for martyrdom. Donatian was im- 
peached for professing himself a Christian, and for having 
withdrawn others, particularly his brother, from the wor- 
ship of the gods. Donatian was therefore apprehended, 
and having boldly confessed Christ before the governor, 
was cast into prison and loaded with irons. Kogatian was 
also brought before the prefect, who endeavored first to 
gain him by flattering speeches, but finding him inflexible, 



MAY 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



291 



sent him to prison with his brother. Kogatian grieved that 
he had not been able to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, 
and prayed that the kiss of peace which his brother gave 
him might supply it. Donatian also prayed for him that 
his faith might procure for him the effect of Baptism, and 
the effusion of his blood that of the Sacrament of Confirma- 
tion. They passed that night together in fervent prayer. 
They were the next day called for again by the prefect, to 
whom they declared that they were ready to suffer for the 
name of Christ whatever torments were prepared for them. 
By the order of the inhuman judge they were first stretched 
on the rack, afterwards their heads were pierced with 
lances, and lastly cut off, about the year 287. 

Reflection. — Three things are pleasing unto God and 
man : concord among brethren, the love of parents, and the 
union of man and wife. 

May 25.— ST. GREGORY VII. 

regory VII. , by name Hildebrand, was born in Tus- 
cany, about the year 1013. He was educated in 
Eome. From thence he went to France, and became a 
monk at Cluny. Afterwards he returned to Kome, and for 
many years filled high trusts of the Holy See. Three great 
evils then afflicted the Church : simony, concubinage, and 
the custom of receiving investiture from lay hands. 
Against these three corruptions Gregory never ceased to 
coutend. As legate of Victor II. he held a Council at 
Lyons, where simony was condemned. He was elected 
Pope in 1073, and at once called upon the pastors of the 
Catholic world to lay down their lives rather than betray 
the laws of God to the will of princes. Kome was in rebel- 
lion through the ambition of the Cenci. Gregory excom- 
municated them. They laid hands on him at Christmas 
during the midnight Mass, wounded him, and cast him into 
prison. The following day he was rescued by the people, 



292 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 25. 



Next arose his conflict with Henry IV., Emperor of Ger- 
many. This monarch, after openly relapsing into simony, 
pretended to depose the Pope. Gregory excommunicated 




the emperor. His subjects turned against him, and at last 
he sought absolution of Gregory at Canossa. But he did 
not persevere. He set up an antipope, and besieged 
Gregory in the castle of St. Angelo. The aged pontiff was 
obliged to flee, and on May 25, 1085, about the seventy- 
second year of his life and the twelfth year of his pontifi- 
cate, Gregory entered into his rest. His last words were 
full of a divine wisdom and patience. As he was dying, 
he said, u I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore 
I die in exile." His faithful attendant answered, "Vicar 
of Christ, an exile thou canst never be, for to thee God has 
given the Gentiles for an inheritance, and the uttermost 
ends of the earth for thy possession." 

Reflection. — Eight hundred years are passed since St. 
Gregory died, and we see the same conflict renewed before 
our eyes. Let us learn from him to suffer any persecution 



MAY 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



293 



from the world or the state, rather than betray the rights 
of the Holy See. 

May 26.— ST. PHILIP NERI. 

hilip was one of the noble line of Saints raised up by 
God in the sixteenth century to console and bless 
His Church. After a childhood of angelic beauty the Holy 
Spirit drew him away from Florence, the place of his birth, 
showed him the world, that he might freely renounce it, 
led him to Rome, modelled him in mind and heart and will, 
and then, as by a second Pentecost, came down in visible 
form and filled his soul with light and peace and joy. He 
would have gone to India, but God reserved him for Rome. 
There he went on simply from day to day, drawing souls to 
Jesus, exercising them in mortification and charity, and 
binding them together by cheerful devotions ; thus, uncon- 
sciously to himself, under the hands of Mary, as he said, 
the Oratory grew up, and all Rome was pervaded and 
transformed by its spirit. His life was a continuous mira- 
cle, his habitual state an ecstasy. He read the hearts of 
men, foretold their future, knew their eternal destiny. 
His touch gave health of body ; his very look calmed souls 
in trouble and drove away temptations. He was gay, 
genial, and irresistibly winning ; neither insult nor wrong 
could dim the brightness of his joy. 

Philip lived in an atmosphere of sunshine and gladness 
which brightened all who came near him. " When I met 
him in the street," says one, " he would pat my cheek and 
say, ' W ell, how is Don Pellegrino ? ' and leave me so full 
of joy that I could not tell which way I was going." 
Others said that when he playfully pulled their hair or 
their ears, their hearts would bound with joy. Marcio 
Altieri felt such overflowing gladness in his presence that 
he said Philip's room was a paradise on earth. Fabrizio 
de Massimi would go in sadness or perplexity and stand at 




294 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[MAY 26. 



Philip's door; he said it was enough to see him, to be near 
him. And long after his death it was enough for many, 
when troubled, to go into his room to find their hearts 
lightened and gladdened. He inspired a boundless confi- 
dence and love, and was the common refuge and consoler 
of all. A gentle jest would convey his rebukes and veil his 
miracles. The highest honors sought him out, but he put 
them from him. He died in his eightieth year, a.d. 1595, 
and bears the grand title of Apostle of Kome. 




Reflection. — Philip wished his children to serve God, 
like the first Christians, in gladness of heart. He said this 
was the true filial spirit ; this expands the soul, giving it 
liberty and perfection in action, pow T er over temptations, 
and fuller aid to perseverance. 

ST. AUGUSTINE, Apostle of England. 

ugustine w T as prior of the monastery of St. Andrew 
on the Coelian, and was appointed by St. Gregory 
the Great chief of the missionaries whom he sent to Eng- 
land. 




MAY 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



295 



St. Augustine and his companions, having heard on their 
journey many reports of the barbarism and ferocity of the 
pagan English, were afraid, and wished to turn back. 
But St. Gregory replied, u Go on, in God's name! The 
greater your hardships, the greater your crown. May the 
grace of Almighty God protect you, and give me to see the 
fruit of your labor in the heavenly country ! If I cannot 
share your toil, I shall yet share the harvest, for God 
knows that it is not good- will which is wanting." The 
band of missionaries went on in obedience. 

Landing at Ebbsfleet, between Sandwich and Kamsgate, 
they met King Ethelbert and his thanes under a great 
oak-tree at Minster, and announced to him the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. Instant and complete success attended their 
preaching. On Whit-Sunday, 596, King Ethelbert was 
baptized, and his example was followed by the greater 
number of his nobles and people. By degrees the Faith 
spread far and wide, and Augustine, as Papal Legate, set 
out on a visitation of Britain. He failed in his attempt to 
enlist the Britons of the west in the work of his apostolate, 
through their obstinate jealousy and pride ; but his success 
was triumphant from south to north. St. Augustine died 
after eight years of evangelical labors. The Anglo-Saxon 
Church, which he founded, is still famous for its learning, 
zeal, and devotion to the Holy See, while its calendar com- 
memorates no less than 300 Saints, half of whom were of 
royal birth. 

Reflection. — The work of an apostle is the work of the 
right hand of God. He often chooses weak instruments 
for His mightiest purposes. The most sure augury of last- 
ing success in missionary labor is obedience to superiors 
and diffidence in self, 



29P> 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[may 27. 




May 27 ST. MARY MAGDALEN OF PAZZI. 

t. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, of an illustrious house 
in Florence, was born in the year 1566, and bap- 
tized by the name of Catherine. She received her first 
Communion at ten years of age, and made a vow of virgin- 
ity at twelve. She took great pleasure in carefully teach- 
ing the Christian doctrine to the ignorant. Her father, 
not knowing her vow, wished to give her in marriage, but 
she persuaded him to allow her to become a religious. It 
was more difficult to obtain her mother's consent ; but at 
last she gained it, and she was professed, being then 
eighteen years of age, in the Carmelite monastery of Santa 
Maria degli Angeli in Florence, May 17, 1584. She 
changed her name Catherine into that of Mary Magdalen 
on becoming a nun, and took as her motto, " To suffer or 
die ; " and her life henceforth was a life of penance for 
sins not her own, and of love of Our Lord, Who tried her 
in w T ays fearful and strange. She was obedient, observant 
of the rule, humble and mortified, and had a great reve?- 




MAY 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



297 



ence for the religious life. She loved poverty and suffer- 
ing, and hungered after Communion. The day of Com- 
munion she called the day of love. The charity that 
burned in her heart led her in her youth to choose the 
house of the Carmelites, because the religious therein 
communicated every day. She rejoiced to see others com- 
municate, even when she was not allowed to do so her- 
self ; and her love for her sisters grew when she saw 
them receive Our Lord. 

God raised her to high states of prayer, and gave her 
rare gifts, enabling her to read the thoughts of her 
novices, and filling her with wisdom to direct them aright. 
She was twice chosen mistress of novices, and then made 
superioress, when God took her to Himself, May 25, 1607. 
Her body is incorrupt. 

Reflection. — St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi was so filled 
with the love of God that her sisters in the monastery 
observed it in her love of themselves, and called her "the 
Mother of Charity " and " the Charity of the Monastery." 



'enerable Bede, the illustrious ornament of the 



* Anglo-Saxon Church and the first English histo- 
rian, was consecrated to God at the age of seven, and in- 
trusted to the care of St. Benedict Biscop at "Wearmouth. 
He became a monk in the sister- house of Jarrow, and there 
trained no less than six hundred scholars, whom his piety, 
learning, and sweet disposition had gathered round him. 
To the toils of teaching and the exact observance of his 
rule he added long hours of private prayer, and the study 
of every branch of science and literature then known. He 
was familiar with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In the 
treatise which he compiled for his scholars, still extant, he 
threw together all that the world had then stored in 
history, chronology, physics, music, philosophy, poetry, 



VENERABLE BEDE. 




298 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[may 28. 



arithmetic, and medicine. In his Ecclesiastical History 
he has left us beautiful lives of Anglo-Saxon Saints and 
holy Fathers, while his commentaries on the Holy Script- 
ures are still in use by the Church. It was to the study of 
the Divine Word that he devoted the whole energy of his 
soul, and at times his compunction was so overpowering 
that his voice would break with w r eeping, while the tears 
of his scholars mingled with his owm. He had little aid 
from others, and during his later years suffered from 
constant illness ; yet he worked and prayed up to his last 
hour. 

The Saint was employed in translating the Gospel of St. 
John from the Greek up to the hour of his death, which 
took place on Ascension Day, a.d. 735. " He spent that day 
joyfully," writes one of his scholars. And in the evening 
the boy who attended him said, "Dear master, there is 
yet one sentence unwritten." He answered, " Write it 
quickly." Presently the youth said, " Now it is written." 
He replied, " Good ! thou hast said the truth — eonsum- 
matum est ; take my head into thy hands, for it is very 
pleasant to me to sit facing my old praying-place, and 
there to call upon my Father." And so on the floor of his 
cell he sang, " Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost;" and just as he said " Holy Ghost," he breathed 
his last, and w 7 ent to the realms above. 

Reflection. — " The more," says the Imitation of Christ, 
"a man is united within himself and interiorly simple, so 
much the more and deeper things doth he understand 
without labor ; for he receiveth the light of understanding 
from on high." 

May 28 ST. CERMANUS, Bishop. 

t. Germanus, the glory of the Church of France in 
the sixth century, was born in the territory of 
Autun, about the year 469. In his youth he w T as con- 




May £8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAIMS. 



spicuous for his fervor. Being ordained priest, lie was 
made abbot of St. Symphorian's ; he was favored at that 
time with the gifts of miracles and prophecy. It was his 
custom to watch the great part of the night in the church 
in prayer, whilst his monks slept. One night, in a dream, 
he thought a venerable old man presented him with the 
keys of the city of Paris, and said, to him that God com- 
mitted to his care the inhabitants of that city, that he 
should save them from perishing. Four years after this 




divine admonition, in 554, happening to be at Paris when 
that see became vacant on the demise of the Bishop Euse- 
bius, he was exalted to the episcopal chair, though he en- 
deavored by many tears to decline the charge. His pro- 
motion made no alteration in his mode of life. The same 
simplicity and frugality appeared in his dress, table, and 
furniture. His house was perpetually crowded with the poor 
and the afflicted, and he had always many beggars at his 
own table. God gave to his sermons a wonderful influence 
over the minds of all ranks of people ; so that the face of 



800 



LITTLE SECTORIAL 



[may SO. 



the whole city was in a very short time quite changed. 
King Childebert, who till then had been an ambitious, 
worldly prince, was entirely converted by the sweetness 
and the powerful discourses of the Saint, and founded 
many religious institutions, and sent large sums of money 
to the good bishop, to be distributed among the indigent. 
In his old age St. Germ anus lost nothing of that zeal and 
activity with which he had filled the great duties of his 
station in the vigor of his life ; nor did the weakness to 
which his corporal austerities had reduced him make him 
abate anything in the mortifications of his penitential life, 
in which he redoubled his fervor as he approached nearer 
to the end of his course. By his zeal the remains of idola- 
try were extirpated in France. The Saint continued his 
labors for the conversion of sinners till he was called to 
receive the reward of them, on the 28th of. May, 576, being 
eighty years old. 

Reflection. — u In the churches bless ye God the Lord. 
From Thy temple kings shall offer presents to Thee." 

May 29 ST. CYRIL, Martyr. 

t. Cyril suffered while still a boy at Csesarea in 
Cappadocia, during the persecutions of the third 
century. He used to repeat the name of Christ at all 
times, and confessed that the mere utterance of this name 
moved him strangely. He was beaten and reviled by his 
heathen father. But he bore all this with joy, increasing 
in the strength of Christ, Who dwelt within him, and draw- 
ing many of his own age to the imitation of his heavenly 
life. When his father in his fury turned him out of doors, 
he said he had lost little, and would receive a great recom- 
pense instead. 

Soon after, he was brought before the magistrate on 
account of his faith. No threats could make him show a 




MAY 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



301 



sign of fear, and the judge, pitying perhaps his tender 
years, offered him his freedom, assured him of his father's 
forgiveness, and besought him to return to his home and 
inheritance. But the blessed youth replied, "I left my 
home gladly, for I have a greater and a better which is 
waiting for me." He was filled with the same heavenly 
desires to the end. He was taken to the fire as if for exe- 
cution, and was then brought back and re-examined, but 
he only protested against the cruel delay. Led out to die, 
he hurried on the executioners, gazed unmoved at the 



flames which were kindled for him, and expired, hastening, 
as he said, to his home. 

Reflection. — Ask Our Lord to make all earthly joy in- 
sipid, and to fill you with the constant desire of heaven. 
This desire will make labor easy and suffering light. It 
will make you fervent and detached, and bring you even 
here a foretaste of that eternal joy and peace to which you 
are hastening. 




302 



LITTLE FTCTdittAl 



[may 30. 



May 30.— ST. FELIX I., Pope and Martyr. 

cSt. Felix was a Eoman by birth, and succeeded St. 

Dionysius in the government of the Church in 269. 
Paul of Samosata, the proud Bishop of Antioch, to the guilt 
of many enormous crimes added that of heresy, teaching 
that Christ was no more than a mere man, in whom the 
Divine Word dwelt by its operation and as in its temple, 




with many other gross errors concerning the capital 
mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. Three councils 
were held at Antioch to examine his cause, and in the 
third, assembled in 269, being clearly convicted of heresy, 
pride, and many scandalous crimes, he was excommuni- 
cated and deposed, and Domnus was substituted in his 
place. As Paul still kept possession of the episcopal 
house, our Saint had recourse to the Emperor Aurelian, 
who, though a pagan, gave an order that the house should 
belong to him to whom the bishops of Eome and Italy 
adjudged it. The persecution of Aurelian breaking out, 
St. Felix, fearless of danger, strengthened the weak, en- 



MAY 31.] 



LIVES OF TH^ SAINTS. 



368 



con raged all, baptized the catechumens, and co ntinued to 
exert himself in converting infidels to the Faith. He him- 
self obtained the glory of martyrdom. He governed the 
Church five years, and passed to a glorious eternity in 274. 

Reflection. — The example of Our Saviour and of all His 
saints ought to encourage us under all trials to suffer with 
patience and even with joy. We shall soon begin to feel 
that it is sweet to tread in the steps of a God- man, and 
shall find that if we courageously take up our crosses, He 
will make them light by sharing the burden with us. 

May 31.— ST. PETRONILLA, Virgin. 
*j 1'mong the disciples of the apostles in the primitive 



age of saints this holy virgin shone as a bright 
star in the Church. She lived when Christians were more 
solicitous to live well than to write much : they knew how 
to die for Christ, but did not compile long books in which 
vanity has often a greater share than charity. Hence no 
particular account of her actions has been handed down to 
us. But how eminent her sanctity was we may judge from 
the lustre by which it was distinguished among apostles, 
prophets, and martyrs. She is said to have been a daugh- 
ter of the apostle St. Peter; that St. Peter was married 
before his vocation to the apostleship we learn from the 
Gospel. St. Clement of Alexandria assures us that his wife 
attained to the glory of martyrdom, at which Peter him- 
self encouraged her, bidding her to remember Our Lord. 
But it seems not certain whether St. Petronilla was more 
than the spiritual daughter of that apostle. She flourished 
at Rome, and was buried on the way to Ardea, where in 
ancient times a cemetery and a church bore her name. 

Reflection. — With the saints the great end for which 
they lived was always present to their minds, and they 
thought every moment lost in which they did not make 




804 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[juke 1. 



some advances toward eternal bliss. How will their ex- 
ample condemn at the last day the trifling fooleries and 
the greatest part of the conversation and employments of 




the world, which aim at nothing but present amusements, 
and forget the only important affair — the business of 
eternity. 



June 1.— ST. JUSTIN, Martyr. 

t. Justin was born of heathen parents at Neapolis in 
Samaria, about the year 103. He was well edu- 
cated, and gave himself to the study of philosophy, but 
always with one object, that he might learn the knowledge 
of God. He sought this knowledge among the contending 
schools of philosophy, but always in vain, till at last God 
himself appeased the thirst which He had created. One 
day, while Justin was walking by the seashore, meditating 
on the thought of God, an old man met him and questioned 
him on the subject of his doubts ; and when he had made 
Justin confess that the philosophers taught nothing certain 




JUNE 1.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



805 



about God, he told him of the writings of the inspired 
prophets and of Jesus Christ Whom they announced, and 
bade him seek light and understanding through prayer. 
The Scriptures and the constancy of the Christian martyrs 
led Justin from the darkness of human reason to the light 
of faith. In his zeal for the Faith he travelled to Greece, 
Egypt, and Italy, gaining many to Christ. At Eome he 
sealed his testimony with his blood, surrounded by his dis- 
ciples. " Do you think," the prefect said to Justin, " that 
by dying you will enter heaven, and be rewarded by God ? " 
"I do not think," was the Saint's answer; "I know." 
Then, as now 7 , there were many religious opinions, but only 
one certainty — the certainty of the Catholic faith. This 
certainty should be the measure of our confidence and our 
zeal. 

Reflection. — We have received the gift of faith with 
little labor of our own. Let us learn how to value it from 
those who reached it after long search, and lived in the 
misery of a world wmich did not know God. Let us fear, 
as St. Justin did, the account we shall have to render for 
the gift of God. 



ST. PAMPHILUS, Martyr. 

^^t. Pamphilus w r as of a rich and honorable family, 
and a native of Berytus, in which city, at that time 
famous for its schools, he in his youth ran through the 
whole circle of the sciences, and was afterward honored 
w T ith the first employments of the magistracy. After he 
began to know Christ, he could relish no other study but 
that of salvation, and renounced everything else that he 
might apply himself wholly to the exercises of virtue and 
the studies of the Holy Scriptures. This accomplished 
master in profane sciences, and this renowned magistrate, 
was not ashamed to become the humble scholar of Pierius, 
the successor of Origen, in the great catechetical school of 



806 



LIT'rLft PlCtOIUAL 



['JUNE 1. 



Alexandria. He afterward made Caesarea, in Palestine, 
his residence, where, at his private expense, he collected a 
great library, which he bestowed on the church of that 
city. The Saint established there also a public school of 
sacred literature, and to his labors the Church was indebted 
for a most correct edition of the Holy Bible, which, with 
infinite care, he transcribed himself. But nothing was 
more remarkable in this Saint than his extraordinary 




humility. His paternal estate he at length distributed 
among the poor ; towards his slaves and domestics his be- 
havior was always that of a brother or a tender father. 
He led a most austere life, sequestered from the world and 
its company, and was indefatigable in labor. Such a 
virtue was his apprenticeship to the grace of martyrdom. 
In the year 307, Urbanus, the cruel governor of Palestine, 
caused him to be apprehended, and commanded him to be 
most inhumanly tormented. But the iron hooks which 
tore the martyr's sides served only to cover the judge with 
confusion. After this, the Saint remained almost two 
years in prison. Urbanus, the governor, was himself be- 



JUNE 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



307 



headed by an order of the Emperor Maximinus, but was 
succeeded by Firmilian, a man not less barbarous than 
bigoted and superstitious. After several butcheries, he 
caused St. Pamphilus to be brought before him, and passed 
sentence of death upon him. His flesh was torn off to the 
very bones, and his bowels exposed to view, and the tor- 
ments were continued a long time without intermission, 
but he never once opened his mouth so much as to groan. 
He finished his martyrdom by a slow fire, and died invok- 
ing Jesus, the Son of God. 

Reflection. —A cloud of witnesses, a noble army of mar- 
tyrs, teach us by their constancy to suffer wrong with 
patience, and strenuously to resist evil. The daily trials 
we meet with from others or from ourselves are always 
sent us by God, "Who sometimes throws difficulties in our 
way on purpose to reward our conquest ; and sometimes, 
like a wise physician, restores us to our health by bitter 
potions. 

June 2.— STS. POTHINUS, Bishop, SANCTUS, ATTA- 
LUS, BLANDINA, and the other Martyrs of Lyons. 

*j m'fter the miraculous victory obtained by the prayers 
cJ-*^ of the Christians under Marcus Aurelius, in 174, 
the Church enjoyed a kind of peace, though it was often 
disturbed in particular places by popular commotions, or 
by the superstitious fury of certain governors. This ap- 
pears from the violent persecution which was raised three 
years after the aforesaid victory, at Vienne and Lyons, in 
177, whilst St. Pothinus was Bishop of Lyons, and St. 
Irenseus, who had been sent thither by St. Polycarp out of 
Asia, was a priest of that city. Many of the principal 
Christians were brought before the Eoman governor. 
Among them was a slave, Blanclina : and her mistress, also 
a Christian, feared that Blanclina lacked strength to brave 
the torture, She was tormented a whole day through, but 



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[JUNE 2. 



she bore it all with joy till the executioners gave up, con- 
fessing themselves outdone. Ked-hot plates were held to 
the sides of Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne, till his body be- 
came one great sore, and he looked no longer like a man; 
but in the midst of his tortures he was " bedewed and 
strengthened by the stream of heavenly w T ater which flows 
from the side of Christ." Meantime, many confessors 
w T ere kept in prison, . and with them were some who 
had been terrified into apostasy. Even the heathens 




marked the joy of martyrdom in the Christians who were 
decked for their eternal espousals, and the misery of the 
apostates. But the faithful confessors brought back those 
who had fallen, and the Church, " that Virgin Mother," 
rejoiced when she saw her children live again in Christ. 
Some died in prison, the rest were martyred one by one, 
St. Blandina last of all, after seeing her younger brother 
put to a cruel death, and encouraging him to victory. 

Reflection.— In early times the Christians were called 
the children of joy. Let us seek the joy of the Holy Spirit 



JUNE 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



309 



to sweeten suffering, to temper earthly delight, till we enter 
into the joy of Our Lord. 

June 3.— ST. CLOTILDA, Queen. 

t. Clotilda was daughter of Chilperic, younger 
brother to Gondebald, the tyrannical King of Bur- 
gundy, who put him and his wife, and his other brothers, 
except one, to death, in order to usurp their dominions. 
Clotilda was brought up in her uncle's court; and, by a 
singular providence, was instructed in the Catholic religion, 
though she was educated in the midst of Arians. Her wit, 
beauty, meekness, modesty, and piety made her the adora- 
tion of all the neighboring kingdoms, and Clovis I., sur- 
named the Great, the victorious king of the Franks, de- 
manded and obtained her in marriage. She honored her 
royal husband, studied to sweeten his warlike temper by 
Christian meekness, conformed herself to his humor in 
things that were indifferent, and, the better to gain his 
affections, made those things the subject of her discourse 
and praises in which she knew him to take the greatest de- 
light. "When she saw herself mistress of his heart, she did 
not defer the great work of endeavoring to win him to God, 
but the fear of giving offence to his people made him delay 
his conversion. His miraculous victory over the Alemanni. 
and his entire conversion in 496, were at length the fruit of 
our Saint's prayers. Clotilda, having gained to God this 
great monarch, never ceased to excite him to glorious ac- 
tions for the divine honor ; among other religious founda- 
tions, he built in Paris, at her request, about the year 511, 
the great church of Sts. Peter and Paul, now called St. 
Genevieve's. This great prince died on the 27th of No- 
vember, in the year 511, at the age of forty-five, having 
reigned thirty years. His eldest son, Theodoric, reigned 
at Eheims over the eastern parts of France, Clodomir 
reigned at Orleans, Childebert at Paris, and Clotaire I. at 



310 



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[JUNE 3. 



Soissons. This division produced wars and mutual jeal- 
ousies, till in 560 the whole monarchy was reunited under 
Clotaire, the youngest of these brothers. The dissension 
in her family contributed more perfectly to wean Clotilda's 
heart from the world. She spent the remaining part of 
her life in exercises of prayer, almsdeeds, watching, fast- 
ing, and penance, seeming totally to forget that she had 
been queen or that her sons sat on the throne. Eternity 
filled her heart and employed all her thoughts. She fore- 
told her death thirty days before it happened. On the 




thirtieth day of her illness, she received the sacraments, 
made a public confession of her faith, and departed to the 
Lord on the 3d of June, in 545. 

Reflection. — St. Peter defines the mission of the Chris- 
tian woman : to w 7 in the heart of those w 7 ho believe not the 
word. 



JUNE 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



311 




June 4. — ST. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO. 

Brancis was born in the kingdom of Naples, of the 
princely family of Caracciolo. In childhood he 
shunned all amusements, recited the Kosary regularly, and 
loved to visit the Blessed Sacrament and to distribute his 
food to the poor. An attack of leprosy taught him the 
vileness of the human body and the vanity of the world. 
Almost miraculously cured, he renounced his home to 
study for the priesthood at Naples, where he spent his 
leisure hours in the prisons or visiting the Blessed Sacra- 
ment in unfrequented churches. God called him, when 
only twenty-live, to found an Order of Clerks Kegular, 
whose rule was that each day one father fasted on biead 
and water, another took the discipline, a third wore a hair- 
shirt, while they always watched by turns in perpetual 
adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. They took the 
usual vows, adding a fourth — not to desire dignities. To 
establish his Order, Francis undertook many journeys 
through Italy and Spain, on foot and without money, con- 



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[JUNE 5. 



tent with the shelter and crusts given him in charity. 
Being elected general, he redoubled his austerities, and de- 
voted seven hours daily to meditation on the Passion, be- 
sides passing most of the night praying before the Blessed 
Sacrament. Francis was commonly called the Preacher of 
Divine Love. But it was before the Blessed Sacrament 
that his ardent devotion was most clearly perceptible. In 
presence of his divine Lord his face usually emitted bril- 
liant rays of light ; and he often bathed the ground with 
his tears when he prayed, according to his custom, pros- 
trate on his face before the tabernacle, and constantly 
repeating, as one devoured by internal fire, u The zeal of 
Thy house hath eaten me up." He died of fever, aged 
forty-four, on the eve of Corpus Christi, 1608, saying, 
" Let us go, let us go to heaven !" When his body was 
opened after death, his heart was found as it were burnt up, 
and these words imprinted around it : " Zelus domus TuaB 
comedit me " — " The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up." 

Reflection. — It is for men, and not for angels, that our 
blessed Lord resides upon the altar. Yet angels throng 
our churches to worship Him while men desert Him. 
Learn from St. Francis to avoid such ingratitude, and to 
spend, as he did, every possible moment before the Most 
Holy Sacrament. 

June 5.— ST. BONIFACE, Bishop, Martyr. 

C^f t. Boniface was born at Crediton in Devonshire, 



England, in the year 680. Some missionaries stay- 
ing at his father's house spoke to him of heavenly things, 
and inspired him with a wish to devote himself, as they 
did, to God. He entered the monastery of Exminster, and 
was there trained for his apostolic work. His first attempt 
to convert the pagans in Holland having failed, he went to 
Kome to obtain the Pope's blessing on his mission, and 
returned with authority to preach to the German tribes. 




JUNE 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



318 



It was a slow and dangerous task ; his own life was in con- 
stant peril, while his flock was often reduced to abject 
poverty by the wandering robber bands. Yet his courage 
never flagged. He began with Bavaria and Thuringia, 
next visited Friesland, then passed on to Hesse and Saxony, 
everywhere destroying the idol temples and raising churches 
on their site. He endeavored, as far as possible, to make 
every object of idolatry contribute in some way to the 




glory of God ; on one occasion, having cut down an im- 
mense oak which was consecrated to Jupiter, he used the 
tree in building a church, which he dedicated to the Prince 
of the Apostles. He was now recalled to Kome, conse- 
crated Bishop by the Pope, and returned to extend and 
organize the rising German Church. With diligent care 
he reformed abuses among the existing clergy, and estab- 
lished religious houses throughout the land. At length, 
feeling his infirmities increase, and fearful of losing his 
martyr's crown, Boniface appointed a successor to his 
monastery, and set out to convert a fresh pagan tribe. 



814 



LITTLE PiCTORiAL 



[JUNE 6. 



While St. Boniface was waiting to administer Confirma- 
tion to some newly-baptized Christians, a troop of pagans 
arrived, armed with swords and spears. His attendants 
would have opposed them, but the Saint said to his fol- 
lowers : "My children, cease your resistance; the long- 
expected day is come at last. Scripture forbids us to resist 
evil. Let us put our hope in God : He will save our souls. " 
Scarcely had he ceased speaking, when the barbarians fell 
upon him and slew him with all his attendants, to the 
number of fifty-two. 

Reflection. — St. Boniface teaches us how the love of 
Christ changes all things. It was for Christ's sake that he 
toiled for souls, preferring poverty to riches, labor to rest, 
suffering to pleasure, death to life, that by dying he might 
live with Christ. 

June 6.— ST. NORBERT, Bishop. 

Of noble rank and rare talents, Norbert passed a most 
pious youth, and entered the ecclesiastical 'state. 
By a strange contradiction, his conduct now became a 
scandal to his sacred calling, and at the court of the Em- 
peror Henry IV. he led, like many clerics of that age, a 
life of dissipation and luxury. One day, when he was 
thirty years of age, he was thrown half dead from his 
horse, and on recovering his senses, resolved upon a new 
life. After a severe and searching preparation, he was 
ordained priest, and began to expose the abuses of his 
Order. Silenced at first by a local council, he .obtained 
the Pope's sanction and preached penance to listening- 
crowds in France and the Netherlands. In the wild vale 
of Premontre he gave to some trained disciples the rule of 
St. Austin, and a white habit to denote the angelic purity 
proper to the priesthood. The Canons Regular, or Pre- 
monstratensians, as they were called, were to unite the 
active work of the country clergy with the obligations of 



JUNE 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



815 



the monastic life. Their fervor renewed the spirit of the 
priesthood, quickened the faith of the people, and drove 
out heresy. A vile heretic, named Tankelin, appeared at 
Antwerp, in the time of St. Norbert, and denied the reality 
of the priesthood, and especially blasphemed the Blessed 
Eucharist. The Saint was sent for to drive out the pest. 




By his burning words he exposed the impostor and re- 
kindled the faith in the Blessed Sacrament. Many of the 
apostates had proved their contempt for the Blessed Sacra- 
ment by burying it in filthy places. ISTorbert bade them 
search for the Sacred Hosts. They found them entire and 
uninjured, and the Saint bore them back in triumph to the 
tabernacle. Hence he is generally painted with the mon- 
strance in his hand. In 1126 ISTorbert found himself ap- 
pointed Bishop of Magdeburg ; and there, at the risk of his 
life, he zealously carried on his work of reform, and died, 
worn out with toil, at the age of fifty-three. 

Reflection. — Reparation for the injuries offered to the 
Blessed Sacrament was the aim of St. ISTorbert's great work 



316 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 1 



of reform — in himself, in the clergy, and in the faithful. 
How much does our present worship repair for our own 
past irreverences, and for the outrages offered by others to 
the Blessed Eucharist ? 

June 7.— ST. ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER. 

IN 1132 Eobert was a monk at Whitby, England, when 
news arrived that thirteen religious had been violently 
expelled from the Abbey of St. Mary, in York, for having 
proposed to restore the strict Benedictine rule. He at once 
set out to join them, and found them on the banks of the 
Skeld, near Ripon, living in the midst of winter in a hat 
made of hurdles and roofed with turf. In the spring they 
affiliated themselves to St. Bernard's reform at Clairvaux, 
and for two years struggled on in extreme poverty. At 
length the fame of their sanctity brought another novice, 
Hugh, Dean of York, who endowed the community with 
all his wealth, and thus laid the foundation of Fountains 
Abbey. In 1137 Raynulph, Baron of Morpeth, was so 
edified by the example of the monks at Fountains that he 
built them a monastery in Northumberland, called New- 
minster, of which St. Robert became abbot. The holiness 
of his life, even more than his words, guided his brethren 
to perfection, and within the next ten years three new 
communities went forth from this one house to become 
centres of holiness in other parts. The abstinence of St. 
Robert in refectory alone sufficed to maintain the mortified 
spirit of the community. One Easter Day, his stomach, 
weakened by the fast of Lent, could take no food, and he 
at last consented to try to eat some biead sweetened with 
honey. Before it was brought, he felt this relaxation 
would be a dangerous example for his subjects, and sent 
the food untouched to the poor at the gate. The plate was 
received by a young man of si lining countenance, who 
straightway disappeared. At the next meal the plate de- 



JUNE ?.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



317 



scended empty, and by itself, to the abbot's place in the 
refectory, proving that what the Saint sacrificed for his 
brethren had been accepted by Christ. At the moment of 
Robert's death, in 1159, St. Godric, the hermit of Finchale, 
saw his soul, like a globe of fire, borne up by the angels in 
a pathway of light ; and as the gates of heaven opened 
before them, a voice repeated twice, "Enter now, my 
friends." 

Reflection. — Reason and authority prove that virtue 
ought to be practised. But facts alone prove that it is 
practised ; and this is why examples have more power to 
move our souls, and why our individual actions are of such 
fearful importance for others as well as for ourselves. 

ST. CLAUDE, Archbishop. 

he province of Eastern Burgundy received great lustre 
from this glorious Saint. He was born at Salins, 
about the year 603, and was both the model and the oracle 
of the clergy of Besancon, when, upon the death of Arch- 
bishop Gervaise, about the year 683, he was chosen to be 
his successor. Fearing the obligations of that charge, he 
fled and hid himself, but was discovered and compelled to 
take it upon him. During seven years he acquitted him- 
self of the pastoral functions w 7 ith the zeal and vigilance of 
an apostle; but finding then an opportunity of resigning 
his see, w T hich, out of humility and love of solitude, he 
had always sought, he retired to the great monastery of 
St. Oyend, and there took the monastic habit, in 690. 
Violence was used to oblige him soon after to accept the 
abbatial dignity. Such was the sanctity of his life, and 
his zeal in conducting his monks in the paths of evangel- 
ical perfection, that he deserved to be compared to the 
Antonines and Pachomiuses, and his monastery to those of 
ancient Egypt. Manual labor, silence, prayer, reading of 
pious books, especially the Holy Bible, fasting, watching, 



318 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 8. 



humility, obedience, poverty, mortification, and the close 
union of their hearts with God, made up the whole occupa- 
tion of these fervent servants of God, and were the rich 




patrimony which St. Claude left to his disciples. He died 
in 703. 



June 8.— ST. MEDARD, Bishop. 

t. Medard, one of the most illustrious prelates of the 
Church of France in the sixth century, was born of 
a pious and noble family, at Salency, about the year 457. 
From his childhood he evinced the most tender compas- 
sion for the poor. On one occasion he gave his coat to a 
destitute blind man, and when asked why he had done so, 
he answered that the misery of a fellow-member in Christ 
so affected him that he could not help giving him part of 
his own clothes. Being promoted to the priesthood in the 
thirty-third year of his age, he became a bright ornament 
of that sacred order. He preached the word of God with 
an unction which touched the hearts of the most hardened; 




JUNE 8.] 



LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



319 



and the influence of his example, by which he enforced 
the precepts which he delivered from the pulpit, seemed 
irresistible. In 530, Alomer, the thirteenth bishop of that 
country, dying, St. Medard was unanimously chosen to fill 
the see, and was consecrated by St. Kemigius, who had 
baptized King Clovis in 496, and was then exceeding old. 
Our Saint's new dignity did not make him abate anything 
of his austerities, and, though at that time seventy-two 
years old, he thought himself obliged to redouble his 
labors. Though his diocese was very wide, it seemed 
not to suffice for his zeal, which could not be confined; 
wherever he saw the opportunity of advancing the honor 
of God, and of abolishing the remains of idolatry, he over- 
came all obstacles, and by his zealous labors and miracles 
the rays of the Gospel dispelled the mists of idolatry 
throughout the whole extent of his diocese. What ren- 




dered this task more difficult and perilous was the savage 
and fierce disposition of the ancient inhabitants of Flan- 
ders, who were the most barbarous of all the nations of 
the Gauls and Franks. Our Saint, having completed this 



320 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 9. 



great work in Flanders, returned to Noyon, where he 
shortly after fell sick, and soon rested from his labors at 
an advanced age, in 545. The whole kingdom lamented 
his death as the loss of their common father and protector. 
His body was buried in his own cathedral, but the many 
miracles wrought at his tomb so moved King Clotaire that 
he translated the precious remains to Soissons. 

Reflection. — The Church takes delight in styling her 
founder " The amiable Jesus," and He likewise says of 
Himself, " I am meek and humble of heart." 



June 9 STS. PRIMUS and FELICIANUS, Martyrs. 

^^HESE two martyrs were brothers, aud lived in Rome, 
toward the latter part of the third century, for 
many years, mutually encouraging each other in the 




practice of all good works. They seemed to possess noth- 
ing but for the poor, and often spent both nights and days 
with the confessors in their dungeons, or at the places of 



JUNE 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



321 



their torments and execution. Some they encouraged to 
perseverance, others, who had fallen, they raised again, 
and they made themselves the servants of all in Christ, 
that all might attain to salvation through Him. Though 
their zeal was most remarkable, they had escaped the 
dangers of many bloody persecutions, and were grown old 
in the heroic exercises of virtue, when it pleased God to 
crown their labors with a glorious martyrdom. The 
pagans raised so great an outcry against them that they 
were both apprehended and put in chains. They were in- 
humanly scourged, and then sent to a town twelve miles 
from Eome to be farther chastised, as avowed enemies to 
the gods. There they were cruelly tortured, first both to- 
gether, afterward separately. But the grace of God 
strengthened them, and they were at length both beheaded 
on the 9th of June. 

Reflection. — A soul which truly loves God regards all 
the things of this world as nothing. The loss of goods, the 
disgrace of the world, torments, sickness, and other afflic- 
tions are bitter to the senses, but appear light to him that 
loves. If we cannot bear our trials with patience and 
silence, it is because we love God only in words. ' ' One 
who is slothful and lukewarm complains of everything, 
and calls the lightest precepts hard," says Thomas a 
Kempis. 

ST. COLUMBA, or COLUMKILLE, Abbot. 

t. Columba, the apostle of the Picts, was born of a 
noble family, at Gartan, in the county of Tyrcon- 
nel, a.d. 521. From early childhood he gave himself to 
God. In all his labors — and they were many — Iiis chief 
thought was heaven and how he should secure the way 
thither. The result was that he lay on the bare floor, with 
a stone for his pillow, and fasted all the year round ; yet 
the sweetness of bis countenance told of the holy soul's 



322 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 9. 



interior serenity. Though austere, he was not morose ; 
and, often as he longed to die, he was untiring in good 
works throughout his life. After he had been made 
abbot, his zeal offended King Dermot ; and in 565 the 
Saint departed for Scotland, where he founded a hundred 
religious houses and converted the Picts, who in gratitude 
gave him the island of Iona. There St. Columba founded 
his celebrated monastery, the school of apostolic mission- 
aries and martyrs, and for centuries the last resting-place 




of Saints and kings. Four years before his death, our 
Saint had a vision of angels, who told him that the day of 
his death had been deferred four years, in answer to the 
prayers of his children ; whereat the Saint wept bitterly, 
and cried out, "Woe is me that my sojourning is pro- 
longed ! " for he desired above all things to reach his true 
home. How different is the conduct of most men, who 
dread death above everything, instead of wishing " to be 
dissolved, and to be with Christ"! On the day of his 
peaceful death, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, 
surrounded in choir by his spiritual children, the 9th of 



JUNE 10.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



828 



June, a.d. 597, he said to his disciple Diermit, " This day 
is called the Sabbath, that is, the day of rest, and such will 
it truly be to me ; for it will put an end to my labors." 
Then, kneeling before the altar, he received the Viaticum, 
and sweetly slept in the Lord. His relics were carried to 
Down, and laid in the same shrine with the bodies of St. 
Patrick and St. Brigid. 

Reflection. — The thought of the world to come will 
always make us happy, and yet strict with ourselves in all 
our duties. The more perfect we become, the sooner shall 
we behold that for which St. Oolumba sighed. 

June 10.— ST. MARGARET OF SCOTLAND. 

^^r. Margaret's name signifies " pearl ; " "a fitting 
name," says Theodoric, her confessor and her first 
biographer, u f or one such as she." Her soul was like a 
precious pearl. A life spent amidst the luxury of a royal 
court never dimmed its lustre, or stole it away from Him 
who had bought it with His blood. She was the grand- 
daughter of an English king ; and in 1070 she became the 
bride of Malcolm, and reigned Queen of Scotland till her 
death in 1093. How did she become a Saint in a position 
where sanctity is so difficult ? First, she burned with zeal 
for the house of God. She built churches and monasteries; 
she busied herself in making vestments ; she could not 
rest till she saw the laws of God and His Church observed 
throughout her realm. Next, amidst a thousand cares, 
she found time to converse with God — ordering her piety 
with such sweetness and discretion that she w T on her hus- 
band to sanctity like her own. He used to rise with her 
at night for prayer ; he loved to kiss the holy books she 
used, and sometimes he would steal them away, and bring 
them back to his wife covered with jewels. Lastly, with 
virtues so great, she wept constantly over her sins, and 
begged her confessor to correct her faults. St. Margaret 



824 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 10. 



did not neglect her duties in the world because she was 
not of it. Never was a better mother. She spared no 
pains in the education of her eight children, and their 




sanctity was the fruit of her prudence and her zeal. Never 
was a better queen. She was the most trusted counsellor 
of her husband, and she labored for the material improve- 
ment of the country. But, in the midst of the world's 
pleasures, she sighed for the better country, and accepted 
death as a release. On her death-bed she received the 
news that her husband and her eldest son were slain in 
battle. She thanked God, Who had sent this last affliction 
as a penance for her sins. After receiving Holy Viaticum, ( 
she was repeating the prayer from the Missal, ' 4 O Lord 
Jesus Christ, Who by Thy death didst give life to the 
world, deliver me." At the words " deliver me," says her 
biographer, she took her departure to Christ, the Author 
of true liberty. 

Reflection. — All perfection consists in keeping a guard 
upon the heart. Wherever we are, we can make a solitude 



JUNE 11.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



825 



in our hearts, detach ourselves from the world, and con- 
verse familiarly with God. Let us take St. Margaret for 
our example and encouragement. 

June 11. — ST. BARNABAS, Apostle. 

'//) I ' E reac ^ ^ iat * n ^ rs * ^ a ^ s °^ ^ e Church, u the 
multitude of believers had but one heart and one 
soul ; neither did any one say that aught of the things 
which he possessed was his own." Of this fervent com- 
pany, one only is singled out by name, Joseph, a rich Levite, 
from Cyprus. u He having land sold it, and brought the 
price and laid it at the feet of the apostles." They now 
gave him a new name, Barnabas, the son of consolation. 
" He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, 




and was soon chosen for an important mission to the 
rapidly-growing Church of Antioch. Here he perceived 
the great work which was to be done among the Greeks, so 
he hastened to fetch St. Paul from his retirement at Tarsus. 
It was at Antioch that the two Saints were called to the 



826 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 12. 



apostolate of the Gentiles, and hence they set out together 
to Cyprus and the cities of Asia Minor. Their preaching 
struck men with amazement, and some cried out, u The 
gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," calling 
Paul Mercury, and Barnabas Jupiter. The Saints travelled 
together to the Council of Jerusalem, but shortly after this 
they parted. When Agabus prophesied a great famine, 
Barnabas, no longer rich, was chosen by the faithful at 
Antioch as most fit to bear, with St. Paul, their generous 
offerings to the Church of Jerusalem, The gentle Barna- 
bas, keeping with him John, surnamed Mark, whom St. 
Paul distrusted, betook himself to Cyprus, w 7 here the 
sacred history leaves him ; and here, at a later period, he 
won his martyr's crown. 

Reflection. — St. Barnabas's life is full of suggestions to 
us who live in days w 7 hen once more the abundant alms of 
the faithful are sorely needed by the whole Church, from 
the Sovereign Pontiff to the poor children in our streets. 

June 12.— ST. JOHN OF ST. FAGONDEZ. 

T. John was born at St. Fagondez, in Spain. At an 
early age he held several benefices in the diocese of 
Burgos, till the reproaches of his conscience forced him to 
resign them all except one chapel, where he said Mass daily, 
preached, and catechised. After this he studied theology 
at Salamanca, and then labored for some time as a most 
devoted missionary priest. Ultimately he became a her- 
mit of the Augustinian Order, in the same city. There his 
life was marked by a singular devotion to the Holy Mass. 
Each night after Matins he remained in prayer till the 
hour of celebration, when he offered the Adorable Sacrifice 
with the most tender piety, often enjoying the sight of 
Jesus in glory, and holding sweet colloquies with Him. 
The power of his personal holiness was seen in his preach- 
ing, which produced a complete reformation in Salamanca. 




JUNE 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



He had a special gift of reconciling differences, and was 
enabled to put an end to the quarrels and feuds among 
noblemen, at that period very common and fatal. The 
boldness shown by St. John in reproving vice endangered 
his life. A powerful noble, having been corrected by the 
Saint for oppressing his vassals, sent two assassins to slay 
him. The holiness of the Saint's aspect, however, caused 
by that peace which continually reigned in his soul, struck 
such awe into their minds that they could not execute 
their purpose, but humbly besought his forgiveness. And 




the nobleman himself, falling sick, was brought to repent- 
ance, and recovered his health by the prayers of the Saint 
whom he had endeavored to murder. He was also most 
zealous in denouncing those hideous vices which are a 
fruitful source of strife, and it was in defence of holy purity 
that he met his death. A lady of noble birth but evil life, 
whose companion in sin St. John had converted, contrived 
to administer a fatal poison to the Saint. After several 
months of terrible suffering-, borne with unvarying patience, 
St. John went to his reward on June 11, 1479. 



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[jTJNE 13. 



Reflection. — All men desire peace, but those alone enjoy 
it who, like St. John, are completely dead to themselves, 
and love to bear all things for Christ. 

June 13 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. 

'tt'n 1221 St. Francis held a general chapter at Assisi ; 



r^s when the others dispersed, there lingered behind, un- 
known and neglected, a poor Portuguese friar, resolved to 
ask for and to refuse nothing. Nine months later, Fra An- 
tonio rose under obedience to preach to the religious assem- 
bled at Forli, when, as the discourse proceeded, u the 
Hammer of Heretics/' "the Ark of the Testament," " the 
eldest son of St. Francis, 1 ' stood revealed in all his sanctity, 
learning, and eloquence before his rapt and astonished 
brethren. Devoted from earliest youth to prayer and study 
among the Canons Regular, Ferdinand de Bulloens, as his 
name was in the world, had been stirred, by the spirit and 
example of the first five Franciscan martyrs, to put on their 
habit and preach the Faith to the Moors in Africa. Denied 
a martyr's palm, and enfeebled by sickness, at the age of 
twenty- seven he was taking silent but merciless revenge 
upon himself in the humblest offices of his community. 
From this obscurity he was now called forth, and for nine 
years France, Italy, and Sicily heard his voice, saw his 
miracles, and men's hearts turned to God. One night, 
when St. Antony was staying with a friend in the city of 
Padua, his host saw brilliant rays streaming under the 
door of the Saint's room, and on looking through the key- 
hole he beheld a little Child of marvellous beauty standing 
upon a book which lay open upon the table, and clinging 
with both arms round Antony's neck. With an ineffable 
sweetness he watched the tender caresses of the Saint and 
his wondrous Visitor. At last the Child vanished, and Fra 
Antonio, opening the door, charged his friend, by the love 
of Him Whom he had seen, to " tell the vision to no man " 




JUNE 14.] 



LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



as long as he was alive. Suddenly, in 1231, our Saint's 
brief apostolate was closed, and the voices of children were 
heard crying along the streets of Padua, " Our father, St. 




Antony, is dead." The following year, the church-bells of 
Lisbon rang without ringers, while at Kome one of its 
sons was inscribed among the Saints of God. 



Reflection. — Let us love to pray and labor unseen, and 
cherish in the secret of our hearts the graces of God and the 
growth of our immortal souls. Like St. Antony, let us 
attend to this, and leave the rest to God. 

June 14. — ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 

t. Basil was born in Asia Minor. Two of his brothers 
became bishops, and, together with his mother and 
sister, are honored as Saints. He studied with great suc- 
cess at Athens, where he formed with St. Gregory Nazian- 
zen the most tender friendship. He then taught oratory ; 
but dreading the honors of the world, he gave up all, and 
became the father of the monastic life in the East. The 




330 



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[jUNE 14. 



Arian heretics, supported by the court, were then perse- 
cuting the Church ; and Basil was summoned from his 
retirement by his bishop to give aid against them. His 
energy and zeal soon mitigated the disorders of the Church, 
and his solid and eloquent words silenced the heretics. On 
the death of Eusebius, he was chosen Bishop of Caesarea. 
His commanding character, his firmness and energy, his 
learning and eloquence, and not less his humility and the 
exceeding austerity of his life, made him a model for 




bishops. When St. Basil was required to admit the Arians 
to Communion, the prefect, finding that soft words had no 
effect, said to him, " Are you mad, that you resist the will 
before which the whole world bows ? Do you not dread 
the wrath of the emperor, nor exile, nor death?" u No," 
said Basil calmly ; " he who has nothing to lose need not 
dread loss of goods ; you cannot exile me, for the whole 
earth is my home ; as for death, it would be the greatest 
kindness you could bestow upon me ; torments cannot 
harm me : one blow would end my frail life and my suffer- 
ings together." "Never," said the prefect, "has any one 



JUNE 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



331 



dared to address me thus. " Perhaps, " suggested Basil, 
" you never before measured your strength with a Chris- 
tian bishop." The emperor desisted from his commands. 
St. Basil's whole life was one of suffering. He lived amid 
jealousies and misunderstandings and seeming disappoint- 
ments. But he sowed the seed which bore goodly fruit in 
the next generation, and was God's instrument in beating 
back the Arian and other heretics in the East, and restor- 
ing the spirit of discipline and fervor in the Church. He 
died in 379, and is venerated as a Doctor of the Church. 

Reflection. — " Fear God," says the Imitation of Christ, 
" and thou shalt have no need of being afraid of any 
man." 

June 15.-STS. VITUS, CRESCENTIA, and MODESTUS, 

Martyrs. 

r'nus was a child nobly born, who had the happiness to 



W be instructed in the Faith, and inspired with the 
most perfect sentiments of his religion, by his Christian 
nurse, named Crescentia, and her faithful husband, Modes- 
tus. His father, Hylas, was extremely incensed when he 
discovered the child's invincible aversion to idolatry ; and 
finding him not to be overcome by stripes and such like 
chastisements, he delivered him up to Valerian, the gov- 
ernor, who in vain tried all his arts to work him into com- 
pliance with his father's will and the emperor's edicts. He 
escaped out of their hands, and, together with Crescentia 
and Modestus, fled into Italy. They there met with the 
crown of martyrdom in Lucania, in the persecution of 
Diocletian. The heroic spirit of martyrdom which we 
admire in St. Vitus was owing to the early impressions of 
piety which he received from the lessons and example of a 
virtuous nurse. Of such infinite importance is the choice 
of virtuous preceptors, nurses, and servants about children. 




332 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 16. 



Reflection. — What happiness for an infant to be formed 
naturally to all virtue, and for the spirit of simplicity, 
meekness, goodness, and piety to be moulded in its tender 




frame ! Such a foundation being well laid, further graces 
are abundantly communicated, and a soul improves daily 
these seeds, and rises to the height of Christian virtue often 
without experiencing severe conflicts of the passions. 



June 16.— ST. JOHN FRANCIS REGIS. 

t. John Francis Kegis was born in Languedoc, a.d. 
1597. From his tenderest years he showed evi- 
dences of uncommon sanctity by his innocence of life, 
modesty, and love of prayer. At the age of eighteen he 
entered the Society of Jesus. As soon as his studies were 
over, he gave himself entirely to the salvation of souls. 
The winter he spent in country missions, principally in 
mountainous districts ; and in spite of the rigor of the 
weather and the ignorance and roughness of the inhabi- 
tants, he labored with such success that he gained in- 




JUNE 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



333 



numerable souls to God both from heresy and from a bad 
life. The summer he gave to the towns. There his time 
was taken up in visiting hospitals and prisons, in preaching 
and instructing, and in assisting all Avho in any way stood 
in need of his services. In his works of mercy God often 
helped him by miracles. In November, 1637, the Saint set 
out for his second mission at Marthes. His road lay across 
valleys filled with snow and over mountains frozen and 
precipitous. In climbing one of the highest, a bush to 
which he was clinging gave way, and he broke his leg in 
the fall. By the help of his companion he accomplished 
the remaining six miles, and then, instead of seeing a sur- 
geon, insisted on being taken straight to the confessional. 
There, after several hours, the curate of the parish found 
him still seated, and when his leg was examined the frac- 




ture was found to be miraculously healed. He was so in- 
flamed with the love of God that he seemed to breathe, 
think, speak of that alone, and he offered up the Holy 
Sacrifice with such attention and fervor that those who 



334 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 17. 



assisted at it could not but feel something of the fire with 
which he burned. After twelve years of unceasing labor, 
he rendered his pure and innocent soul to his Creator, at 
the age of forty-four. 

Reflection. — When St. John Francis was struck in the 
face by a sinner whom he was reproving, he replied, 4 ' If 
you only knew me, you would give me much more than 
that." His meekness converted the man, and it is in this 
spirit that he teaches us to win souls to God. How much 
might we do if we could forget our own wants in remem- 
bering those of others, and put our trust in God ! 

June 17.— ST. AVITUS, Abbot. 

T. Avitus was a native of Orleans, and, retiring into 
Auvergne, took the monastic habit, together with 
St. Calais, in the abbey of Menat, at that time very small, 
though afterward enriched by Queen Brunehault, and by 
St. Boner, Bishop of Clermont. The two Saints soon after 
returned to Miscy, a famous abbey situated a league and a 
half below Orleans. It was founded toward the end of the 
reign of Clovis I. by St. Euspicius, a holy priest, honored 
on the 14th of June, and his nephew St. Maximin or Mes- 
min, whose name this monastery, which is now of the 
Cistercian Order, bears. Many call St. Maximin the first 
abbot, others St. Euspicius the first, St. Maximin the second, 
and St. Avitus the third. But our Saint and St. Calais 
made not a long stay at Miscy, though St. Maximin gave 
them a gracious reception. In quest of a closer retirement, 
St. Avitus, w T ho had succeeded St, Maximin, soon after re- 
signed the abbacy, and with St. Calais lived a recluse in 
the territory now called Dunois, on the frontiers of La 
Perche. Others joining them, St. Calais retired into a 
forest in Maine, and King Clotaire built a church and 
monastery for St. Avitus and his companions. This is at 
present a Benedictine nunnery, called St. Avy of Chateau- 




JUNE 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



335 



dun, and is situated on the Loire, at the foot of the hill on 
which the town of Chateaudun is built, in the diocese of 
Chartres. Three famous monks, Leobin, afterwards Bishop 
of Chartres, Euphronius, and Eusticus, attended our Saint 




to his happy death, which happened about the year 530. 
His body was carried to Orleans, and buried with great 
pomp in that city. 



June 18.— STS. MARCUS and MARCELLIANUS, Martyrs. 

arcus and Marcellianus were twin brothers of an 
illustrious family in Rome, who had been con- 
verted to the Faith in their youth and were honorably mar- 
ried. Diocletian ascending the imperial throne in 284, the 
heathens raised persecutions. These martyrs were thrown 
into prison, and condemned to be beheaded. Their friends 
obtained a respite of the execution for thirty days, that 
they might prevail on them to worship the false gods. 
Tranquillinus and Martia, their afflicted heathen parents, 
in company with their sons' own wives and their little 




836 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 18. 



babes, endeavored to move them by the most tender en- 
treaties and tears. St. Sebastian, an officer of the em- 
peror's household, coming to Rome soon after their com- 
mitment, daily visited and encouraged them. The issue of 
the conferences was the happy conversion of the father, 
motherland wives, also of Nicostratus, the public register, 
and soon after of Chromatius, the judge, who set the Saints 
at liberty, and, abdicating the magistracy, retired into the 



country. Marcus and Marcellianus were hid by a Christian 
officer of the household in his apartments in the palace ; 
but they were betrayed by an apostate, and retaken. 
Fabian, who had succeeded Chromatius, condemned them 
to be bound to two pillars, with their feet nailed to the 
same. In this posture they remained a day and a night, 
and on the following day were stabbed with lances. 

Reflection. — We know not what we are till we have been 
tried. It costs nothing to say we love God above all things, 
and to show the courage of martyrs at a distance from the 
danger ; but that love is sincere which has stood the proof, 




JUNE 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



337 



"Persecution shows who is a hireling, and who a true 
pastor," says St. Bernard. 

June 19.— ST. JULIANA FALCONIERI. 

uliana Falconieri was born in answer to prayer, a.d. 
1270. Her father built the splendid church of the 
Annunziata in Florence, while her uncle, Blessed Alexius, 
became one of the founders of the Servite Order. Under 
his care Juliana grew up, as he said, more like an angel 
than a human being. Such was her modesty that she 
never used a mirror or gazed upon the face of a man dur- 
ing her whole life. The mere mention of sin made her 
shudder and tremble, and once hearing a scandal related 
she fell into a dead swoon. Her devotion to the sorrows 
of Our Lady drew her to the Servants of Mary ; and, at the 
age of fourteen, she refused an offer of marriage, and re- 
ceived the habit from St. Philip Benizi himself. Her 
sanctity attracted many novices, for whose direction she 
was bidden to draw up a rule, and thus with reluctance she 
became foundress of the " Mantellate." She was with her 
children as their servant rather than their mistress, while 
outside her convent she led a life of apostolic charity, con- 
verting sinners, reconciling enemies, and healing the sick 
by sucking with her own lips their ulcerous sores. She 
was sometimes rapt for whole days in ecstasy, and her 
prayers saved the Servite Order when it was in danger of 
being suppressed. She was visited in her last hour by 
angels in the form of white doves, and Jesus Himself, as a 
beautiful child, crowned her with a garland of flowers. 
She wasted away through a disease of the stomach, which 
prevented her taking food. She bore her silent agony with 
constant cheerfulness, grieving only for the privation of 
Holy Communion. At last, when, in her seventieth year, 
she had sunk to the point of death, she begged to be allowed 
once more to see and adore the Blessed Sacrament, It wa§ 



338 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JUNE 20. 



brought to her cell, and reverently laid on a corporal, 
which was placed over her heart. At this moment she 
expired, and the Sacred Host disappeared. After her 




death the form of the Host was found stamped upon her 
heart in the exact spot over which the Blessed Sacrament 
had been placed. Juliana died a.d. 1340. 

Reflection. — u Meditate often," says St. Paul of the 

Cross, 4 'on the sorrows of the holy Mother, sorrows in- 
separable from those of her beloved Son. If you seek the 
Cross, there you will find the Mother ; and where the 
Mother is, there also is the Son." 

June 20 ST. SILVERIUS, Pope and Martyr. 

ilverius was son of Pope Hermisdas, who had been 
married before he entered the ministry. Upon the 
death of St. Agapetas, after a vacancy of forty-seven days, 
Silverius, then subdeacon, was chosen Pope, and ordained 
on the 8th of June, 536. 
Theodora, the empress of Justinian, resolved to promote 




June' SO.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



the sect of the Acephali. She endeavored to win Silverius 
over to her interest, and wrote to him, ordering that he 
should acknowledge Anthimus lawful bishop, or repair in 
person to Constantinople and reexamine his cause on the 
spot. Without the least hesitation or delay, Silverius re- 
turned her a short answer, by which he peremptorily gave 
her to understand that he neither could nor would obey her 
unjust demands and betray the cause of the Catholic faith. 
The empress, finding that she could expect nothing from 
him, resolved to have him deposed. Vigilius, archdeacon 
of the Roman Church, a man of address, was then at Con- 
stantinople. To him the empress made her application, 
and finding him taken by the bait of ambition, promised 
to make him Pope, and to bestow on him seven hundred 
pieces of gold, provided he would engage himself to con- 
demn the Council of Chalcedon and receive to Communion 




the three deposed Eutychian patriarchs, Anthimus of Con- 
stantinople, Severus of Antioch, and Theodosius of Alexan- 
dria. The unhappy Vigilius having assented to these con- 
ditions, the empress sent him to Rome, charged with a 



§40 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[juke 21. 



letter to the general Belisarius, commanding him to drive 
out Silverius and to contrive the election of Vigilius to the 
pontificate. Vigilius urged the general to execute the proj- 
ect. The more easily to carry out this project, the Pope 
was accused of corresponding with the enemy, and a letter 
was produced, which was pretended to have been written 
by him to the king of the Goths, inviting him into the city, 
and promising to open the gates to him. Silverius was 
banished to Patara in Lycia. The bishop of that city 
received the illustrious exile with all possible marks of honor 
and respect ; and thinking himself bound to undertake his 
defence, repaired to Constantinople, and spoke boldly to 
the emperor, terrifying him with the threats of the divine 
judgments for the expulsion of a bishop of so great a see, 
telling him, " There are many kings in the world, but there 
is only one Pope over the Church of the whole world." It 
must be observed that these were the words of an Oriental 
bishop, and a clear confession of the supremacy of the 
Roman See. Justinian appeared startled at the atrocity of 
the proceedings, and gave orders that Silverius should be 
sent back to Rome, but the enemies of the Pope contrived 
to prevent it, and he was intercepted on his road toward 
Rome and carried to a desert island, where he died on the 
20th of June, 538. 

June 21.— ST. ALOYSIUS GONZACA. 

C^(t. Aloysius, the eldest son of Ferdinand Gonzaga, 
K-^ Marquis of Castiglione, was born on the 9th of 
March, 1568. The first words he pronounced were the holy 
names of Jesus and Mary. When he was nine years of age 
he made a vow of perpetual virginity, and by a special 
grace was ever exempted from temptations against purity. 
He received his first Communion at the hands of St. Charles 
Borromeo. At an early age he resolved to leave the world, 
and in a vision was directed by our blessed Lady to join 



JUNE 21.] 



LIVES OF* THE SAINTS. 



341 



the Society of Jesus. The Saint's mother rejoiced on learn- 
ing his determination to become a religious, but his father 
for three years refused his consent. At length St. Aloy- 
sius obtained permission to enter the novitiate on the 25th 
of November, 1585. He took his vows after two years, and 
went through the ordinary course of philosophy and the- 
ology. He was wont to say he doubted whether without 
penance grace would continue to make head against nature, 
which, when not afflicted and chastised, tends gradually to 




relapse into its old state, losing the habit of suffering 
acquired by the labor of years. "lama crooked piece of 
iron," he said, "and am come into religion to be made 
straight by the hammer of mortification and penance." 
During his last year of theology a malignant fever broke 
out in Kome ; the Saint offered himself for the service of 
the sick, and he was accepted for the dangerous duty. 
Several of the brothers caught the fever, and Aloysius was 
of the number. He was brought to the point of death, but 
recovered, only to fall, however, into slow fever, which 



842 



Little pictorial 



[june 22. 



carried him off after three months. He died, repeating the 
Holy Name, a little after midnight between the 20th and 
21st of June, on the octave-day of Corpus Christi, being 
rather more than twenty-three years of age. 

Reflection. — Cardinal Bellarmine, the Saint's confessor, 
testified that he had never mortally offended God. Yet he 
chastised his body rigorously, rose at night to pray, and 
shed many tears for his sins. Pray that, not having fol- 
lowed his innocence, you may yet imitate his penance. 

June 22.— ST. PAULINUS OF NOLA. 

aulinus was of a family which boasted of a long line 
of senators, prefects, and consuls. He was educated 
with great care, and his genius and eloquence, in prose 
and verse, were the admiration of St. Jerome and St. Au- 
gustine. He had more than doubled his wealth by mar- 
riage, and was one of the foremost men of his time. 
Though he was the chosen friend of Saints, and had a great 
devotion to St. Felix of Nola, he was still only a catechu- 
men, trying to serve two masters. But God drew him to 
Himself along the way of sorrows and trials. He received 
baptism, withdrew into Spain to be alone, and then, in 
consort with his holy wife, sold all their vast estates in 
various parts of the empire, distributing their proceeds 
so prudently that St. Jerome says East and West were filled 
with his alms. He was then ordained priest, and retired to 
¥ola in Campania. There he rebuilt the Church of St. 
Felix with great magnificence, and served it night and day, 
living a life of extreme abstinence and toil. In 409 he was 
chosen bishop, and for more than thirty years so ruled as to 
be conspicuous in an age blessed with many great and wise 
bishops. St. Gregory the Great tells us that when the 
Vandals of Africa had made a descent on Campania, Pau- 
linus spent all he had in relieving the distress of his people 
and redeeming them from slavery. At last there came a 




JUNE 22. j 



LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



poor widow ; her only son had been carried off by the son- 
in-law of the Vandal king. " Such as I have I give thee," 
said the Saint to her ; "we will go to Africa, and I will 
give myself for your son. 1 ' Having overborne her resist- 
ance, they went, and Paulinus was accepted in place of the 
widow's son, and employed as gardener. After a time the 
king found out, by divine interposition, that his son-in- 
law's slave was the great Bishop of Nola. He at once set 




him free, granting him also the freedom of all the towns- 
men of Nola w T ho were in slavery. One who knew him well 
says he was meek as Moses, priestlike as Aaron, innocent 
as Samuel, tender as David, wise as Solomon, apostolic as 
Peter, loving as John, cautious as Thomas, keen-sighted as 
Stephen, fervent as Apollos. He died a.d. 431. 

Reflection. — "Go to Campania," writes St. Augustine ; 
" there study Paulinus, that choice servant of God. With 
what generosity, with what still greater humility, he has 
flung from him the burden of this world's grandeurs to 
take on him the yoke of Christ, and in His service how 
serene and unobtrusive his life ! " 



844 



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f JUNE £3. 



June 23.-ST. ETHELDREDA, Abbess. 

Born and brought up in the fear of God — her mother 
and three sisters are numbered among the Saints — 
Etheldreda had but one aim in life, to devote herself to His 
service in the religious state. Her parents, however, had 
other views for her, and, in spite of her tears and prayers, 
she was compelled to become the wife of Tonbercht, a trib- 
utary of the Mercian king. She lived with him as a virgin 




for three years, and at his death retired to the isle of Ely, 
that she might apply herself w T holly to heavenly things. 
This happiness was but short-lived ; for Egfrid, the power- 
ful King of Northumbria, pressed his suit upon her with 
such eagerness that she was forced into a second marriage. 
Her life at his court was that of an ascetic rather than a 
queen : she lived with him not as a wife, but as a sister, 
and, observing a scrupulous regularity of discipline, devoted 
her time to works of mercy and love. After twelve years, 
she retired with her husband's consent to Coldingham 



JUKE 24.] 



LIVES OF f rnE SAlttTS. 



345 



Abbey, which was then under the rule of St. Ebba, and 
received the veil from the hands of St. Wilfrid. As soon as 
Etheldreda had left the court of her husband, he repented 
of having consented to her departure, and followed her, 
meaning to bring her back by force. She took refuge on a 
headland on the coast near Coldinghain ; and here a mira- 
cle took place, for the waters forced themselves a passage 
round the hill, barring the further advance of Egfrid. The 
Saint remained in this island refuge for seven days, till the 
king, recognizing the divine will, agreed to leave her in 
peace. God, Who by a miracle confirmed the Saint's voca- 
tion, will not fail us if, with a single heart, we elect for 
Him. In 672 she returned to Ely, and founded there a 
double monastery. The nunnery she governed herself, 
and was by her example a living rule of perfection to her 
sisters. Some time after her death, in 679, her body was 
found incorrupt, and St. Bede records many miracles 
worked by her relics. 

Reflection. — The soul cannot truly serve God while it is 
involved in the distractions and pleasures of the world. 
Etheldreda knew this, and chose rather to be a servant of 
Christ her Lord than the mistress of an earthly court. 
Eesolve, in whatever state you are, to live absolutely de- 
tached from the world, and to separate yourself as much as 
possible from it. 

June 24.— ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

he birth of St, John was foretold by an angel of the 
Lord to his father, Zachary, who was offering in- 
cense in the Temple. It was the office of St. John to pre- 
pare the way for Christ, and before he was born into the 
world he began to live for the Incarnate Gocl. Even in the 
womb he knew the presence of Jesus and of Mary, and he 
leaped with joy at the glad coming of the Son of man. In 
his youth he remained hidden, because He for Whom he 



LITTLE PICTORIAL. 



[JUKE 24. 



waited was hidden also. But before Christ's public life 
began, a divine impulse led St. John into the desert ; there, 
with locusts for his food and haircloth on his skin, in si- 
lence and in prayer, he chastened his own soul. Then, as 
crowds broke in upon his solitude, he warned them to flee 
from the wrath to come, and gave them the baptism of 
penance, while they confessed their sins. At last there 
stood in the crowd One Whom St. John did not know, till a 
voice within told him that it was his Lord. With the bap- 




tism of St. John, Christ began His penance for the sins of 
His people, and St. John saw the Holy Ghost descend in 
bodily form upon Him. Then the Saint's work was done. 
He had but to point his own disciples to the Lamb, he had 
but to decrease as Christ increased. He saw all men leave 
him and go after Christ. " I told you," he said, " that I 
am not the Christ. The friend of the Bridegroom rejoiceth 
because of the Bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore 
is fulfilled." St. John had been cast into the fortress of 
Machaerus by a worthless tyrant whose crimes he had re- 
buked, and he was to remain there till he was beheaded, at 



JUKE 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



347 



the will of a girl who danced before this wretched king. 
In this time of despair, if St. John could have known de- 
spair, some of his old disciples visited him. St. John did 
not speak to them of himself, but he sent them to Christ, 
that they might see the proofs of His mission. Then the 
Eternal Truth pronounced the panegyric of the Saint who 
had lived and breathed for Him alone : 1 1 Yerily I say unto 
you, Among them that are born of women there hath not 
risen a greater than John the Baptist." 

Reflection. — St. John was great before God because he 
forgot himself and lived for Jesus Christ, Who is the source 
of all greatness. Kemember that you are nothing ; your 
own will and your own desires can only lead to misery and 
sin. Therefore sacrifice every day some one of your natural 
inclinations to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, and learn 
little by little to lose yourself in Him. 

June 25.— ST. PROSPER OF AQUITAINE. — ST. WIL- 
LIAM OF MONTE-VERGINE. 

C^f T. Prosper was born at Aquitaine, in the year 403 # 
His works show that in his youth he had happily 
applied himself to all the branches both of polite and sacred 
learning. On account of the purity and sanctity of his 
manners, he is called by those of his age a holy and vener- 
able man. Our Saint does not appear to have been any 
more than a layman ; but being of great virtue, and of 
extraordinary talents and learning, he wrote several works 
in which he ably refuted the errors of heresy. St. Leo the 
Great, being chosen Pope in 440, invited St. Prosper to 
Eome, made him his secretary, and employed him in the 
most important affairs of the Church. Our Saint crushed 
the Pelagian heresy, which began again to raise its head in 
that capital, and its final overthrow is said to be due to his 
zeal, learning, and unwearied endeavors. The date of his 
death is uncertain, but he was still living in 463. 



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St. "William, having lost his father and mother in his 
infancy, was brought up by his friends in great sentiments 
of piety ; and at fifteen years of age, out of an earnest 
desire to lead a penitential life, he left Piedmont, his native 
country, made an austere pilgrimage to St. James's in 
Galicia, and afterward retired into the kingdom of Naples, 
where he chose for his abode a desert mountain, and lived 
in perpetual contemplation and the exercises of most rigor- 
ous penitential austerities. Finding himself discovered and 
his contemplation interrupted, he changed his habitation 
and settled in a place called Monte- Vergine, situated be- 
tween Kola and Benevento, in the same kingdom ; but his 
reputation followed him, and he was obliged by two neigh- 
boring priests to permit certain fervent persons to live with 




him and to imitate his ascetic practices. Thus, in 1119, 
was laid the foundation of the religious congregation called 
de Monte-Vergine. The Saint died on the 25th of June, 
1142. 



JUNE 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



349 




June 26.— STS. JOHN AND PAUL, Martyrs. 

^^hese two Saints were both officers in the army under 
Julian the Apostate, and received the crown of 
martyrdom, probably in 362. They glorified God by a 
double victory : they despised the honors of the world, and 
triumphed over its threats and torments. They saw many 
wicked men prosper in their impiety, but were not dazzled 
by their example. They considered that worldly prosperity 
which attends impunity in sin is the most drea'dful of all 
judgments ; and how false and short-lived was this glitter- 
ing prosperity of Julian, who in a moment fell into the pit 
which he himself had dug ! But the martyrs, by the mo- 
mentary labor of their conflict, purchased an immense 
weight of never-fading glory ; their torments were, by their 
heroic patience and invincible virtue and fidelity, a spec- 
tacle worthy of God, Who looked down upon them from the 
throne of His glory, and held His arm stretched out to 
strengthen them, and to put on their heads immortal 
crowns in the happy moment of their victory. 



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Reflection. — The Saints always accounted that they had 
done nothing for Christ so long as they had not resisted to 
blood, and by pouring forth the last drop completed their 
sacrifice. Every action of our lives ought to spring from 
this fervent motive, and we should consecrate ourselves to 
the divine service with our whole strength ; we must 
always bear in mind that we owe to God all that we are, 
and, after all we can do, are unprofitable servants, and do 
only what we are bound to do. 

June 27.-ST. LADISLAS, King. 

*T| — ' adislas the First, son of Bel a, King of Hungary, was 
€ ■ * born in 1041. By the pertinacious importunity of 
the people he was compelled, much against his own inclina- 
tion, to ascend the throne, in 1080. He restored the good 




laws and discipline which St. Stephen had established, and 
which seem to have been obliterated by the confusion of 
the times. Chastity, meekness, gravity, charity, and piety 
were from his infancy the distinguishing parts of his char- 



JtJNE 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



351 



acter ; avarice and ambition were his sovereign aversion, 
so perfectly had the maxims of the Gospel extinguished in 
him all propensity to those base passions. His life in the 
palace was most austere ; he was frugal and abstemious, 
but most liberal to the Church and the poor. Vanity, 
pleasure, or idle amusements had no share in his actions or 
time, because all his moments were consecrated to the 
exercises of religion and the duties of his station, in which 
he had only the divine will in view, and sought only God's 
greater honor. He watched over a strict and impartial 
administration of justice, was generous and merciful to his 
enemies, and vigorous in the defence of his country and 
the Church. He drove the Huns out of his territories, and 
vanquished the Poles, Eussians, and Tartars. He was pre- 
paring to command, as general-in-chief, the great expedi- 
tion of the Christians against the Saracens for the recovery 
of the Holy Land, when God called him to Himself, on the 
30th of July, 1095. 

Reflection. — The Saints filled all their moments with 
good works and great actions ; and, whilst they labored for 
an immortal crown, the greatest share of worldly happiness 
of which this life is capable fell in their way without being 
even looked for by them. In their afflictions themselves 
virtue afforded them the most solid comfort, pointed out 
the remedy, and converted their tribulations into the 
greatest advantages. 

June 28.— ST. IREN>EUS, Bishop, Martyr. 

his Saint was born about the year 120. He was a 
Grecian, probably a native of Lesser Asia. His 
parents, who were Christians, placed him under the care of 
the great St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. It was in so 
holy a school that he learned that sacred science which 
rendered him afterward a great ornament of the Church 
and the terror of her enemies. St. Polycarp cultivated his 



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[JUNE 28. 



rising genius, and formed his mind to piety by precepts 
and example ; and the zealous scholar was careful to reap 
all the advantages which were offered him by the happi- 
ness of such a master. Such was his veneration for his 
tutor's sanctity that he observed every action and whatever 
he saw in that holy man, the better to copy his example 
and learn his spirit. He listened to his instructions with 
an insatiable ardor, and so deeply did he engrave them on 
his heart that the impressions remained most lively even to 




his old age. In order to confute the heresies of his age, 
this father made himself acquainted with the most absurd 
conceits of their philosophers, by which means he was 
qualified to trace up every error to its sources and set it in 
its full light. St. Polycarp sent St. Irenseus into Gaul, in 
company with some priest ; he was himself ordained priest 
of the Church of Lyons by St. Pothinus. St. Pothinus 
having glorified God by his happy death, in the year 177, 
our Saint was chosen the second Bishop of Lyons. By his 
preaching, he in a short time converted almost that whole 
country to the Faith. He wrote several works against 



JUNE 29. j 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



358 



heresy, and at last, with many others, suffered martyrdom 
about the year 202, under the Emperor Severus, at Lyons. 

Reflection. — Fathers and mothers, and heads of fami- 
lies, spiritual and temporal, should bear in mind that in- 
feriors "will not be corrected bywords" alone, but that 
example is likewise needful. 

June 29.— ST. PETER, Apostle. 

eter was of Bethsaida in Galilee, and as he was fish- 
ing on the lake was called by Our Lord to be one of 
His apostles. He was poor and unlearned, but candid, 
eager, and loving, In his heart, first of all, grew up the 
conviction, and from his lips came the confession, u Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God ; " and so Our Lord 
chose him, and fitted him to be the Rock of His Church, 
His Vicar on earth, the head and prince of His apostles, 
the centre and very principle of the Church's oneness, the 
source of all spiritual powers, and the unerring teacher of 
His truth. All Scripture is alive with him ; but after Pen- 
tecost he stands out in the full grandeur of his office. He 
fills the vacant apostolic throne ; admits the Jews by thou- 
sands into the fold ; opens it to the Gentiles in the person 
of Cornelius ; founds, and for a time rules, the Church at 
Antioch, and sends Mark to found that of Alexandria. Ten 
years after the Ascension he went to Rome, the centre of 
the majestic Roman Empire, where were gathered the 
glories and the wealth of the earth and all the powers of 
evil. There he established his Chair, and for twenty-five 
years labored with St. Paul in building up the great Roman 
Church. He was crucified by order of Nero, and buried on 
the Vatican Hill. He wrote two Epistles, and suggested 
and approved the Gospel of St. Mark. Two hundred and 
sixty years after St. Peter's martyrdom came the open 
triumph of the Church. Pope St. Sylvester, with bishops 
and clergy and the whole body of the faithful, went 




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through Koine in procession to the Vatican Hill, singing 
the praises of God till the seven hills rang again. The 
first Christian emperor, laying aside his diadem and his 




robes of state, began to dig the foundations of St. Peter's 
Church. And now on the site of that old church stands 
the noblest temple ever raised by man ; beneath a tower- 
ing canopy lie the great apostles, in death, as in life, un- 
divided ; and there is the Chair of St. Peter. All around 
rest the martyrs of Christ — Popes, Saints, Doctors, from 
east and w r est — and high over all, the words, u Thou art 
Peter, and on this Kock I will build My Church." It is 
the threshold of the apostles and the centre of the world. 

Reflection. — Peter still lives on in his successors, and 
rules and feeds the flock committed to him. The reality of 
our devotion to him is the surest test of the purity of our 
faith. 



jum 80. J 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS^ 



June 30 ST. PAUL. 

^^T. Paul was born at Tarsus, of Jewish parents, and 
studied at Jerusalem, at the feet of Gamaliel. 
While still a young man, he held the clothes of those who 
stoned the proto-martyr Stephen ; and in his restless zeal 
he pressed on to Damascus, 4 ' breathing out threatenings 
and slaughter against the disciples of Christ." But near 
Damascus alight from heaven struck him to the earth. He 
heard a voice which said, 4 ' Why persecutest thou Me ? " He 
saw the form of Him Who had been crucified for his sins, and 
then for three days he saw nothing more. He awoke from 
his trance another man — a new creature in Jesus Christ. 
He left Damascus for a long retreat in Arabia, and then, at 
the call of God, he carried the Gospel to the uttermost 




limits of the world, and for years he lived and labored with 
no thought but the thought of Christ crucified, no desire 
but to spend and be spent for Him. He became the 
apostle of the Gentiles, whom he had been taught to hate, 



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and wished himself anathema for his own countrymen, who 
sought his life. Perils by land and sea could not damp his 
courage, nor toil and suffering and age dull the tenderness 
of his heart. At last he gave blood for blood. In his 
youth he had imbibed the false zeal of the Pharisees at 
Jerusalem, the holy city of the former dispensation. With 
St. Peter he consecrated Eome, our holy city, by his 
martyrdom, and poured into its Church all his doctrine 
with all his blood. He left fourteen Epistles, which have 
been a fountain-head of the Church's doctrine, the conso- 
lation and delight of her greatest Saints. His interior life, 
so far as words can tell it, lies open before us in these 
divine writings, the life of one who has died forever to 
himself and risen again in Jesus Christ. " In what, " says 
St. Chrysostom, " in what did this blessed one gain an 
advantage over the other apostles ? How comes it that he 
lives in all men's mouths throughout the world? Is it not 
through the virtue of his Epistles?" Nor will his work 
cease while the race of man continues. Even now, like a 
most chivalrous knight, he stands in our midst, and takes 
captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. 

Reflection.— St. Paul complains that all seek the things 
which are their own, and not the things which are Christ's. 
See if these words apply to you, and resolve to give your- 
self without reserve to God. 

July 1. — ST. GAL, Bishop. 

t. Gal was born at Clermont in Auvergne, about the 
year 489. His father was of the first houses of that 
province, and his mother was descended from the family of 
Vettius Apagatus, the celebrated Koman who suffered at 
Lyons for the faith of Christ. They both took special care 
of the education of their son, and, when he arrived at a 
proper age, proposed to have him married to the daughter 
of a respectable senator. The Saint, who had taken a reso- 




JULY 1.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



lution to consecrate himself to God, withdrew privately 
from his father's house to the monastery of Cournon, near 
the city of Auvergne, and earnestly prayed to be admitted 
there amongst the monks ; and having soon after obtained 
the consent of his parents, he with joy renounced all 
worldly vanities to embrace religious poverty. Here his 
eminent virtues distinguished him in a particular manner, 
and recommended him to Quintianus, Bishop of Auvergne, 
who promoted him to holy orders. The bishop dying in 




527, St. Gal was appointed to succeed him, and in this new 
character his humility, charity, and zeal were conspicuous ; 
above all, his patience in bearing injuries. Being once 
struck on the head by a brutal man, he discovered not the 
least emotion of anger or resentment, and by this meekness 
disarmed the savage of his rage. At another time, Evo- 
dius, who from a senator became a priest, having so far 
forgotten himself as to treat him in the most insulting 
manner, the Saint, without making the least reply, arose 
meekly from his seat and went to visit the churches of the 
city. Evodius was so touched by this conduct that he cast 



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[JULY %. 



himself at the Saint's feet, in the middle of the street, and 
asked his pardon. From this time they both lived on 
terms of the most cordial friendship. St. Gal was favored 
with the gift of miracles, and died about the year 553. 

July 2.— THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

he angel Gabriel, in the mystery of the Annunciation, 
informed the Mother of God that her cousin Eliza- 
beth had miraculously conceived, and was then pregnant 
with a son who was to be the precursor of the Messias. 
The Blessed Virgin out of humility concealed the wonderful 
dignity to which she was raised by the incarnation of the 
Son of God in her womb, but, in the transport of her holy 
joy and gratitude, determined she would go to congratulate 
the mother of the Baptist. " Mary therefore arose," saith 
St. Luke, " and with haste went into the hilly country into 
a city of Judea, and entering into the house of Zachary, 
saluted Elizabeth." What a blessing did the presence of 
the God-man bring to this house, the first which He hon- 
ored in His humanity with His visit ! But Mary is the in- 
strument and means by which He imparts to it His divine 
benediction, to show us that she is a channel through which 
He delights to communicate to us His graces, and to en- 
courage us to ask them of Him through her intercession. 
At the voice of the Mother of God, but by the power and 
grace of her divine Son in her womb, Elizabeth was filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and the Infant in her womb conceived 
so great a joy as to leap and exult. At the same time Eliza- 
beth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and by His infused 
light she understood the great mystery of the Incarnation 
which God had wrought in Mary, whom humility pre- 
vented from disclosing it even to a Saint, and an intimate 
friend. In raptures of astonishment Elizabeth pronounced 
her blessed above all other women, and cried out, 4 4 Whence 
is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to 



JULY 3 ] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



359 



me?" Mary, hearing her own praise, sunk the lower in 
the abyss of her nothingness, and in the transport of her 
humility, and melting in an ecstasy of love and gratitude, 
burst into that admirable canticle, the Magnificat. Mary 
stayed with her cousin almost three months, after which she 
returned to Nazareth. 




Reflection. — Whilst with the Church we praise God for 
the mercies and wonders which He wrought in this mystery, 
we ought to apply ourselves to the imitation of the virtues 
of which Mary sets us a perfect example. From her we 
ought particularly to learn the lessons by which we shall 
sanctify our visits and conversation, actions which are to 
so many Christians the sources of innumerable dangers 
and sins. 

July 3.— ST. HELIODORUS, Bishop. 

his Saint was born at Dalmatia, St. Jerome's native 
country, and soon sought out that great Doctor, in 
order not only to follow his advice in matters relating to 



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Christian perfection, but also to profit by his deep learning. 
The life of a recluse possessed peculiar attractions for him, 
but to enter a monastery it would be necessary to leave his 




spiritual master and director, and such a sacrifice he was 
not prepared to make. He remained in the world, though 
not of it, and, following the example of the holy anchorites, 
passed his time in prayer and devout reading. He accom- 
panied. St. Jerome to the East, but the desire to revisit his 
native laud, and to see his parents ouce more, drew him 
back to Dalmatia, although St, Jerome tried to persuade 
him to remain. He promised to return as soon as he had 
fulfilled the duty he owed his parents. In the mean time, 
finding his absence protracted, and fearing that the love of 
family and attachment to worldly things might lure him 
from his vocation, St. Jerome wrote him an earnest letter, 
exhorting him to break entirely with the world and to 
consecrate himself to the service of God. But the Lord, 
Who disposes all thiugs, had another mission for His ser- 
vant. After the death of his mother, Heliodorus went to 
Italy, where he soon became noted for his eminent piety. 



JULY 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



361 



He was made Bishop of Altino, and became one of the most 
distinguished prelates of an age fruitful in great men. He 
died about the year 290. 

July 4.— ST. BERTHA, Widow, Abbess. 

Bertha was the daughter of Count Eigobert and 
Ursana, related to one of the kings of Kent in Eng- 
land. In the twentieth year of her age she was married 
to Sigefroi, by whom she had five daughters, two of whom, 
Gertrude and Deotila, are Saints. After her husband's 
death she put on the veil in the nunnery which she had 
built at Blangy in Artois, a little distance from Hesdin. 
Her daughters Gertrude and Deotila followed her ex- 
ample. She was persecuted by Eoger, or Kotgar, who 
endeavored to asperse her with King Thierri III., to revenge 




his being refused Gertrude in marriage. But this prince, 
convinced of the innocence of Bertha, then abbess over her 
nunnery, gave her a kind reception and took her under his 
protection. On her return to Blangy, Bertha finished her 



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[JULY 5. 



nunnery and caused three churches to be built, one in 
honor of St. Omer, another she called after St. Vaast, and 
the third in honor of St. Martin of Tours. And then, after 
establishing a regular observance in her community, she 
left St. Deotila abbess in her stead, and shut herself in a 
cell, to pass the remainder of her days in prayer. She died 
about the year 725. A great part of her relics are kept at 
Blangy. 

July 5.— ST. PETER OF LUXEMBURG. 



*-|^)eter of Luxemburg, descended both by his father 
«-■— and mother from the noblest families in Europe, 
was born in Lorraine, in the year 1369. When but a 




schoolboy, twelve years of age, he went to London as a 
hostage for his brother, the Count of St. Pol, who had been 
taken prisoner. The English were so won by Peter's holy 
example that they released him at the end of the year, 
taking his word for the ransom. Eichard II. now invited 
him to remain at the English court ; but Peter returned to 



JULY 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



363 



Paris, determined to have no master but Christ. At the 
early age of fifteen he was appointed, on account of his 
prudence and sanctity, Bishop of Metz, and made his public 
entry into his see barefoot and riding an ass. He governed 
his diocese with all the zeal and prudence of maturity, and 
divided his revenues in three parts — for the Church, the 
poor, and his household. His charities often left him per- 
sonally destitute, and he had but twenty pence left when he 
died. Created Cardinal of St. George, his austerities in 
the midst of a court were so severe that he was ordered to 
moderate them. Peter replied, " I shall always be an un- 
profitable servant, but I can at least obey." Ten months 
after his promotion he fell sick of a fever, and lingered for 
some time in a sinking condition, his holiness increasing as 
he drew near his end. St. Peter, it was believed, never 
stained his soul by mortal sin ; yet as he grew in grace 
his holy hatred of self became more and more intense. At 
length, when he had received the last sacraments, he forced 
his attendants each in turn to scourge him for his faults, 
and then lay silent till he died. But God was pleased to 
glorify His servant. Among other miracles is the follow- 
ing : On July 5, 1432, a child about twelve years old was 
killed by falling from a high tower, in the palace of Avi- 
gnon, upon a sharp rock. The father, distracted with grief, 
picked up the scattered pieces of the skull and brains, and 
carried them in a sack, with the mutilated body of his son, 
to St. Peter's shrine, and with many tears besought the 
Saint's intercession. After a while the child returned to 
life, and was placed upon the altar for all to witness. In 
honor of this miracle the city of Avignon chose St. Peter 
as its patron Saint. He died a.d. 1387, aged eighteen years. 

Reflection. — St. Peter teaches us how, by self-denial, 
rank, riches, the highest dignities, and all this world can 
give, may serve to make a Saint. 



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July 6 ST. GOAR, Priest. 

cS t. Goar was born of an illustrious family, at Aqui- 
taine. From his youth he was noted for his earnest 
piety, and, having been raised to sacred orders, he con- 
verted many sinners by the fervor of his preaching and the 
force of his example. Wishing to serve God entirely un- 
known to the world, he went over into Germany, and, 
settling in the neighborhood of Trier, he shut himself up 




in his cell, and arrived at such an eminent degree of sanc- 
tity as to be esteemed the oracle and miracle of the whole 
country. Sigebert, King of Austrasia, learning of the sanc- 
tity of Goar, wished to have him made Bishop of Metz, and 
for that purpose summoned him to court. The Saint, fear- 
ing the responsibilities of the office, prayed that he might 
be excused. He was seized with a fever, and died in 575. 



JULY 6.] 



LIVES OF THE saints. 



365 



ST. PALLADIUS, Bishop, Apostle of the Scots. 

he name of Palladius shows this Saint to have been a 
Koman, and most authors agree that he was deacon 
of the Church of Kome. At least St. Prosper, in his chron- 
icle, informs us that when Agricola, a noted Pelagian, had 
corrupted the churches of Britain by introducing that 
pestilential heresy, Pope Celestine, at the instance of Pal- 
ladius the deacon, in 429, sent thither St. Germanus, Bishop 
of Auxerre, in quality of his legate, who, having ejected 
the heretics, brought back the Britons to the Catholic faith. 
In 431 Pope Celestine sent Palladius, the first bishop, to the 
Scots then believing in Christ. The Irish writers of the 
lives of St. Patrick say that St. Palladius had preached in 
Ireland a little before St. Patrick, but that he was soon 
banished by the King of Leinster, and returned to North 
Britain, where he had first opened his mission. There 
seems to be no doubt that he was sent to the whole nation 
of the Scots, several colonies of whom had passed from 
Ireland into North Britain, and possessed themselves of 
part of the country since called Scotland. After St. Pal- 
ladius had left Ireland, he arrived among the Scots in North 
Britain, according to St. Prosper, in the consulate of Bassus 
and Antiochus, in the year of Christ 431. He preached 
there with great zeal, and formed a considerable Church. 
The Scottish historians tell us that the Faith was planted 
in North Britain about the year 200, in the time of King 
Donald, when Victor was Pope of Kome. But they all 
acknowledge that Palladius was the first bishop in that 
country, and style him their first apostle. The Saint died 
at Fordun, fifteen miles from Aberdeen, about the year 450. 

Reflection. — St. Palladius surmounted every obstacle 
which a fierce nation had opposed to the establishment of 
the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Ought not our hearts to be 
impressed with the most lively sentiments of love and 



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[JULY 1 



gratitude to our merciful God for having raised up such 
great and zealous men, by whose ministry the light of true 
faith has been conveyed to us ? 

July 7.— ST. PANT^NUS, Father of the Church. 

his learned father and apostolic man flourished in the 
second century. He was by birth a Sicilian, by 
profession a Stoic philosopher. His esteem for virtue led 
him into an acquaintance with the Christians, and being 




charmed with the innocence and sanctity of their conversa- 
tion, he opened his eyes to the truth. He studied the Holy 
Scriptures under the disciples of the apostles, and his 
thirst after sacred learning brought him to Alexandria, in 
Egypt, where the disciples of St. Mark had instituted a cele- 
brated school of the Christian doctrine. Pantsenus sought 
not to display his talents in that great mart of literature 
and commerce ; but this great progress in sacred learning 
was after some time discovered, and he was drawn out of 
that obscurity in which his humility sought to bury itself. 



JULY §.] 



LIVES OF *HE SAINTS. 



Being placed at the head of the Christian school some time 
before the year 179, by his learning and excellent manner 
of teaching he raised its reputation above all the schools of 
the philosophers, and the lessons which he read, and which 
were gathered from the flowers of the prophets and apos- 
tles, conveyed light and knowledge into the minds of all 
his hearers. The Indians who traded at Alexandria en- 
treated him to pay their country a visit, whereupon he for- 
sook his school and went to preach the Gospel to the East- 
ern nations. St. Pantaenus found some seeds of the faith 
already sown in the Indies, and a book of the Gospel of St. 
Matthew in Hebrew, which St. Bartholomew had carried 
thither. He brought it back with him to Alexandria, 
whither he returned after he had zealously employed some 
years in instructing the Indians in the faith. St. Pantaenus 
continued to teach in private till about the year 216, when 
he closed a noble and excellent life by a happy death. 

Reflection. — " Have a care that none lead you astray by 
a false philosophy," says St. Paul, for philosophy without 
religion is a vain thing. 



July 8.— ST. ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL. 

/^lizabeth was born in 1271. She was daughter of 
Pedro III. of Arragon, being named after her aunt, 
St. Elizabeth of Hungary. At twelve years of age she was 
given in marriage to Denis, King of Portugal, and from a 
holy child became a saintly wife. She heard Mass and 
recited the Divine Office daily, but her devotions were 
arranged with such prudence that they interfered with no 
duty of her state. She prepared for her frequent commun- 
ions by severe austerities, fasting thrice a week, and by 
heroic works of charity. She was several times called on to 
make peace between her husband and her son Alphonso, 
who had taken up arms against him. Her husband tried 
her much, both by his unfounded jealousy and by his infi- 



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delity to herself. A slander affecting Elizabeth and one of 
her pages made the king determine to slay the youth, and 
he told a lime-burner to cast into his kiln the first page 
who should arrive with a royal message. On the day fixed 
the page was sent ; but the boy, who was in the habit of 
hearing Mass daily, stopped on his way to do so. The 
king, in suspense, sent a second page, the very originator 
of the calumny, who, coming first to the kiln, was at once 
cast into the furnace and burned. Shortly after, the first 




page arrived from the church, and took back to the king 
the lime-burner's reply that his orders had been fulfilled. 
Thus hearing Mass saved the page's life and proved the 
queen's innocence. Her patience, and the wonderful 
sweetness with which she even cherished the children of 
her rivals, completely won the king from his evil ways, and 
he became a devoted husband and a truly Christian king. 
She built many charitable institutions and religious houses, 
among others a convent of Poor Clares. After her hus- 
band's death, she wished to enter their Order ; but being 



JULY 9.] 



LIVES OF" THE SAINTS. 



369 



dissuaded by her people, who could not do without her, she 
took the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, and spent 
the rest of her life in redoubled austerities and almsgiving. 
She died at the age of sixty-five, while in the act of making 
peace between her children. 

Reflection. — In the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar St. Eliza- 
beth daily found strength to bear with sweetness suspicion 
and cruelty ; and by that same Holy Sacrifice her inno- 
cence was proved. What succor do we forfeit by neglect 
of daily Mass ! 

July 9. — ST. EPHREM, Deacon. 

QjT. Ephrem is the light and glory of the Syriac 
Church. A mere youth, he entered on the re- 
ligious life at Nisibis, his native place. Long years of 
retirement taught him the science of the Saints, and then 
God called him to Edessa, there to teach what he had 
learned so well. He defended the Faith against heresies, 
in books which have made him known as the Prophet of 
the Syrians. Crowds hung upon his words. Tears used to 
stop his voice when he preached. He trembled and made 
his hearers tremble at the thought of God's judgments ; 
but he found in compunction and humility the way to 
peace, and he rested with unshaken confidence in the mercy 
of our blessed Lord. "I am setting out," he says, speak- 
ing of his own death, " I am setting out on a journey hard 
and dangerous. Thee, 0 Son of God, I have taken for my 
Viaticum. When I am hungry, I will feed on Thee. The 
infernal fire will not venture near me, for it cannot bear 
the fragrance of Thy Body and Thy Blood." His hymns 
won the hearts of the people, drove out the hymns of the 
Gnostic heretics, and gained for him the title which he 
bears in the Syriac Liturgy to this day — " the Harp of the 
Holy Ghost." Passionate as he was by nature, from the 
time he entered religion no one ever saw him angry. 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 9. 



Abounding in labors till the last, he toiled for the suffer- 
ing poor at Edessa in the famine of 378, and there lay 
down to die in extreme old age. What was the secret of 
success so various and so complete? Humility, which 
made him distrust himself and trust God. Till his death, 
he wept for the slight sins committed in the thoughtless- 
ness of boyhood. He refused the dignity of the priesthood. 
"I," he told St. Basil, w T hom he went to see at the bidding 




of the Holy Spirit, " I am that Ephrem who have wandered 
from the path of heaven." Then bursting into tears, he 
cried out, ' ' O my father, have pity on a sinful wretch, and 
lead me on the narrow way." 

Reflection. — Humility is the path which leads to abiding 
peace and brings us near to the consolations of God. 



JULY 10.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



371 



July 10. — THE SEVEN BROTHERS, Martyrs, and ST. 
FELICITAS, their Mother. 

he illustrious martyrdom of these Saints happened at 
Rome, under the Emperor Antoninus. The seven 
brothers were the sons of St. Felicitas, a noble, pious, 
Christian widow in Rome, who, after the death of her hus- 
band, served God in a state of continency and employed 
herself wholly in prayer, fasting, and works of charity. 
By the public and edifying example of this lady and her 
whole family many idolaters w r ere moved to renounce the 
worship of their false gods, and to embrace the Faith of 
Christ. This excited the anger of the heathen priests, who 
complained to the emperor that the boldness with w T hich 
Felicitas publicly practised the Christian religion drew many 
from the worship of the immortal gods, who were the 
guardians and protectors of the empire, and that, in order 
to appease these false gods, it was necessary to compel this 
lady and her children to sacrifice to them. Publius, the 
prefect of Rome, caused the mother and her sons to be ap- 
prehended and brought before him, and, addressing her, 
said, " Take pity on your children, Felicitas; they are in 
the bloom of youth, and may aspire to the greatest honors 
and preferments." The holy mother answered, " Your pity 
is really impiety, and the compassion to which you exhort 
me would make me the most cruel of mothers." Then 
turning herself towards her children, she said to them, 
" My sons, look up to heaven, where Jesus Christ with His 
Saints expects you. Be faithful in His love, and fight 
courageously for your souls." Publius, being exasperated 
at this behavior, commanded her to be cruelly buffeted ; he 
then called the children to him one after another, and used 
many artful speeches, mingling promises with threats to 
induce them to adore the gods. His arguments and threats 
were equally in vain, and the brothers were condemned to 
be scourged. After being whipped, they w r ere remanded 



372 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 10. 



to prison, and the prefect, despairing to overcome their 
resolution, laid the whole process before the emperor. 
Antoninus gave an order that they should be sent to dif- 
ferent judges, and be condemned to different deaths. 
Januarius was scourged to death with whips loaded with 
plummets of ]ead. The two next, Felix and Philip, were 
beaten with clubs till they expired. Sylvan us, the fourth, 
was thrown headlong down a steep precipice. The three 
youngest, Alexander, Vitalis, and Martialis, were beheaded, 




and the same sentence was executed upon the mother four 
months after. 



Reflection. — What afflictions do parents daily meet with 
from the disorders into which their children fall through 
their own bad example or neglect ! Let them imitate the 
earnestness of St. Felicitas in forming to perfect virtue the 
tender souls which God hath committed to their charge, 
and with this Saint they will have the greatest of all com- 
forts in them, and will by His grace count as many Saints 
in their family as they are blessed with children. 



JULY 11.] 



LTYES OF THE SAINTS. 



373 



July 11.— ST. JAMES, Bishop. 

his eminent Saint and glorious Doctor of the Syriae 
Church was a native of Msibis, in Mesopotamia. In 
his youth, entering the world, he trembled at the sight of 
its vices and the slippery path of its pleasures, and he 
thought it the safer part to strengthen himself in retire- 
ment, that he might afterward be the better able to stand 
his ground in the field. He accordingly chose the highest 
mountain for his abode, sheltering himself in a cave in the 
winter, and the rest of the year living in the woods, con- 
tinually exposed to the open air. Notwithstanding his 
desire to live unknown to men, he was discovered, and 
many were not afraid to climb the rugged rocks that they 
might recommend themselves to his prayers and receive the 
comfort of his spiritual advice. He was favored with the 
gifts of prophecy and miracles in an uncommon measure. 
One day, as he was travelling, he was accosted by a gang of 
beggars, with the view of extorting money from him under 
pretence of burying their companion, who lay stretched 
on the ground as if he were dead. The holy man gave 
them what they asked, and " offering up supplications to 
God as for a soul departed, he prayed that his Divine 
Majesty would pardon him the sins he had committed whilst 
he lived, and that he would admit him into the company of 
the Saints." As soon as the Saint was gone by, the beg- 
gars, calling upon their companion to rise and take his 
share of the booty, were surprised to find him really dead. 
Seized with sudden fear and grief, they shrieked in the 
utmost consternation, and immediately ran after the man 
of God, cast themselves at his feet, confessed the cheat, 
begged forgiveness, and besought him by his prayers to 
restore their unhappy companion to life, which the Saint 
did. The most famous miracle of our Saint was that by 
which he protected his native city from the barbarians. 
Sapor II. , the haughty King of Persia, besieged Msibis with 



374 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 11. 



the whole strength of his empire, whilst our Saint was 
Bishop. The Bishop would not pray for the destruction of 
any one, but he implored the Divine Mercy that the city 
might be delivered from the calamities of so long a siege. 
Afterward, going to the top of a high tower, and turning 
his face towards the enemy, and seeing the prodigious 
multitude of men and beasts which covered the whole 
country, he said, " Lord, Thou art able by the weakest 
means to humble the pride of Thy enemies ; defeat these 




multitudes by an army of gnats." God heard the humble 
prayer of His servant. Scarce had the Saint spoken those 
words, when whole clouds of gnats and flies came pouring 
down upon the Persians, got into the elephants' trunks and 
the horses' ears and nostrils, which made them chafe and 
foam, throw their riders, and put the whole army into con- 
fusion and disorder. A famine and pestilence, which fol- 
lowed, carried otf a great part of the army; and Sapor, 
after lying above three months before the place, set fire to 
all his own engines of war, and was forced to abandon the 
siege and return home with the loss of twenty thousand 



JULY 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



375 



men. Sapor received a third foil under the walls of Nisibis, 
in 359, upon which he turned his arms against Amidus, 
took that strong city, and put the garrison and the greatest 
part of the inhabitants to the sword. The citizens of Nisi- 
bis attributed their preservation to the intercession of their 
glorious patron, St. James, although he had already gone 
to his reward. He died in 350. 

July 12.— ST. JOHN GUALBERT. 

t. John Gu albert was born at Florence, a.d. 999. 
Following the profession of arms at that troubled 
period, he became involved in a blood-feud with a near re- 
lative. One Good Friday, as he was riding into Florence 
accompanied by armed men, he encountered his enemy in 
a place where neither could avoid the other. John would 
have slain him ; but his adversary, who was totally 
unprepared to fight, fell upon his knees with his arms 
stretched out in the form of a cross, and implored him, for 
the sake of Our Lord's holy Passion, to spare his life. St. 
John said to his enemy, "I cannot refuse what you ask 
in Christ's name. I grant you your life, and I give you 
my friendship. Pray that God may forgive me my sin." 
Grace triumphed. A humble and changed man, he entered 
the Church of St. Miniato, which was near ; and whilst he 
prayed, the figure of our crucified Lord, before which he 
was kneeling, bowed its head toward him as if to ratify his 
pardon. Abandoning the world, he gave himself up to 
prayer and penance in the Benedictine Order. Later he 
was led to found the congregation called of Vallombrosa, 
from the shady valley a few miles from Florence, where he 
established his first monastery. Once the enemies of the 
Saint came to his convent of St. Salvi, plundered it, and 
set fire to it, and having treated the monks with ignominy, 
beat them and wounded them. St. John rejoiced. ' ' Now, " 
he said, ' ' you are true monks. Would that I myself had 




376 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL 



[JULY 13. 



had the honor of being with you when the soldiers came, that 
I might have had a share in the glory of your crowms ! " He 
fought manfully against simony, and in many ways pro- 




moted the interest of the Faith in Italy. After a life of 
great austerity, he died whilst the angels were singing 
round his bed, July 12, 1073. 



Reflection. — The heroic act which merited for St. John 
Gualbert his conversion was the forgiveness of his enemy. 
Let us imitate him in this virtue, resolving never to revenge 
ourselves in deed, in w T ord, or in thought. 

July 13.— ST. EUGENIUS, Bishop, 

^t^he episcopal see of Carthage had remained vacant 
twenty-four years, when, in 481, Huneric permitted 
the Catholics on certain conditions to choose one who 
should fill it. The people, impatient to enjoy the comfort 
of a pastor, pitched upon Eugenius, a citizen of Carthage, 
eminent for his learning, zeal, piety, and prudence. His 
charities to the distressed were excessive, and he refused 



JULY 13.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



377 



himself everything that he might give all to the poor. His 
virtue gained him the respect and esteem even of the 
Arians ; but at length envy and blind zeal got the ascend- 
ant in their breasts, and the king sent him an order never 
to sit on the episcopal throne, preach to the people, or ad- 
mit into his chapel any Vandals, among whom several were 
Catholics. The Saint boldly answered that the laws of God 
commanded him not to shut the door of His church to any 
that desired to serve Him in it. Huneric, enraged at this 
answer, persecuted the Catholics in various ways. Many 
nuns were so cruelly tortured that they died on the rack. 
Great numbers of bishops, priests, deacons, and eminent 
Catholic laymen were banished to a desert filled with scor- 
pions and venomous serpents. The people followed their 
bishops and priests with lighted tapers in their hands, and 




mothers carried their little babes in their arms and laid 
them at the feet of the confessors, all crying out with tears, 
" Going yourselves to your crowns, to whom do you leave 
us ? Who will baptize our children ? Who will impart tQ 



378 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 14. 



us the benefit of penance, and discharge us from the bonds 
of sin by the favor of reconciliation and pardon ? Who will 
bury us with solemn supplications at our death ? By whom 
will the Divine Sacrifice be made ?" The Bishop Eugenius 
was spared in the first storm, but afterwards was carried 
into the uninhabited desert country in the province of 
Tripolis, and committed to the guard of Antony, an inhu- 
man Arian bishop, who treated him with the utmost bar- 
barity. Gontamund, who succeeded Huneric, recalled our 
Saint to Carthage, opened the Catholic churches, and al- 
lowed all the exiled priests to return. After reigning 
twelve years, Gontamund died, and his brother Thrasimund 
was called to the crown. Under this prince St. Eugenius 
was again banished, and died in exile, on the 13th of July, 
505, in a monastery which he built and governed, near 
AM. 

Reflection. — " Alms shall be a great confidence before 
the Most High God to them that give it. Water quencheth 
a flaming fire, and alms resisteth sin." 

July 14. — ST. BONAVENTURE. 

anctity and learning raised Bonaventure to the 
Church's highest honors, and from a child he was 
the companion of Saints. Yet at heart he was ever the 
poor Franciscan friar, and practised and taught humility 
and mortification. St. Francis gave him his name ; for, 
having miraculously cured him of a mortal sickness, he 
prophetically exclaimed of the child, u O bona ventura ! " 
— good luck. He is known also as the " Seraphic Doctor," 
from the fervor of' divine love which breathes in his writ- 
ings. He was the friend of St. Thomas Aquinas, who 
asked him one day whence he drew his great learning. He 
replied by pointing to his crucifix. At another time St. 
Thomas found him in ecstasy while writing the life of St. 
Francis, and exclaimed, " Let us leave a Saint to write of a. 




JULY 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAltfTS. 



870 



Saint." They received the Doctor's cap together. He was 
the guest and adviser of St. Louis, and the director of St. 
Isabella, the king's sister. At the age of thirty-live he was 
made general of his Order ; and only escaped another dig- 
nity, the Archbishopric of York, by dint of tears and en- 
treaties. Gregory X. appointed him Cardinal Bishop of 
Albano. When the Saint heard of the Pope's resolve 
to create him a Cardinal, he quietly made his escape from 
Italy. But Gregory sent him a summons to return to 




Rome. On his way, he stopped to rest himself at a 
convent of his Order near Florence ; and there two 
Papal messengers, sent to meet him with the Cardinal's 
hat, found him washing the dishes. The Saint desired 
them to hang the hat on a bush that was near, and take a 
walk in the garden until he had finished what he was about. 
Then taking up the hat with unfeigned sorrow, he joined 
the messengers, and paid them the respect due to their 
character. He sat at the Pontiff's right hand, and spoke 
first at the Council of Lyons. His piety and eloquence won 
over the Greeks to Catholic union, and then his strength 



380 



LifTLE pictorial 



[JULY 15. 



failed. He died while the Council was sitting, and was 
buried by the assembled bishops, a.d. 1274. 

Reflection. — u The fear of God," says St. Bonaventure, 
' ' forbids a man to give his heart to transitory things, 
which are the true seeds of sin." 

July 15. — ST. HENRY, Emperor. 

*np^ enry, Duke of Bavaria, saw in a vision his guardian, 
r*-b St. Wolfgang, pointing to the words "after six." 
This moved him to prepare for death, and for six years he 
continued to watch and pray, when, at the end of the sixth 
year, he found the warning verified in his election as em- 
peror. Thus trained in the fear of God, he ascended the 
throne with but one thought — to reign for His greater 
glory. The pagan Slavs were then despoiling the empire. 
Henry attacked them with a small force ; but angels and 
Saints were seen leading his troops, and the heathen fled 
in despair. Poland and Bohemia, Moravia and Burgundy, 
were in turn annexed to his kingdom, Pannonia and Hun- 
gary won to the Church. With the Faith secured in Ger- 
many, Henry passed into Italy, drove out the Antipope 
Gregory, brought Benedict VIII. back to Rome, and was 
crowned in St. Peter's by that Pontiff, in 1014. It was 
Henry's custom, on arriving in any town, to spend his first 
night in watching in some church dedicated to our blessed 
Lady. As he was thus praying in St. Mary Major's, the 
first night of his arrival in Rome, he ' 1 saw the Sovereign 
and Eternal Priest Christ Jesus " enter to say Mass. Sts. 
Laurence and Vincent assisted as deacon and sub-deacon. 
Saints innumerable filled the church, and angels sang in 
the choir. After the Gospel, an angel was sent by Our 
Lady to give Henry the book to kiss. Touching him 
lightly on the thigh, as the angel did to Jacob, he said, 
"Accept this sign of God's love for your chastity and 
justice ; " and from that time the emperor always was 



JULY 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



381 



lame. Like holy David, Henry employed the fruits of his 
conquests in the service of the temple. The forests and 
mines of the empire, the best that his treasury could pro- 
duce, were consecrated to the sanctuary. Stately cathe- 
drals, noble monasteries, churches innumerable, enlight- 
ened and sanctified the once heathen lands. In 1022 
Henry lay on his bed of death. He gave back to her 
parents his wife, St. Cunegunda, ' 1 a virgin still, as a 




virgin he had received her from Christ," and surrendered 
his own pure soul to God. 

Reflection. — St. Henry deprived himself of many things 
to enrich the house of God. "We clothe ourselves in purple 
and fine linen, and leave Jesus in poverty and neglect. 



July 16.— ST. SIMON STOCK. 

^^imon was born in the county of Kent, England, and 
left his home when he was but twelve years of age, 
to live as a hermit in the hollow trunk of a tree, whence he 
was known as Simon of the Stock. Here he passed twenty 



§82 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 16. 



years in penance and prayer, and learned from Our Lady 
that he was to join an Order not then known in England. 
He waited in patience till the White Friars came, and then 
entered the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. His 
great holiness moved his brethren in the general chapter 
held at Aylesford, near Kochester, in 1245, to choose him 
prior-general of the Order. In the many persecutions 
raised against the new religious, Simon went with filial 
confidence to the Blessed Mother of God. As he knelt in 




prayer in the White Friars' convent at Cambridge, on July 
16, 1251, she appeared before him and presented him 
with the scapular, in assurance of her protection. The 
devotion to the blessed habit spread quickly throughout the 
Christian world. Pope after Pope enriched it with indul- 
gences, and miracles innumerable put their seal upon its 
efficacy. The first of them was worked at Winchester on a 
man dying in despair, who at once asked for the Sacra- 
ments, when the scapular was laid upon him by St. Simon 
Stock. In the year 1636, M. de Guge, a cornet in a cav- 
alry regiment, was mortally wounded at the engagement of 



JULY l?.] LIVES Of THE SAINTS. §8^ 

Tehin, a bullet having lodged near his heart. He was then 
in a state of grievous sin, but had time left him to make 
his confession, and with his own hands wrote his last testa- 
ment. When this was done, the surgeon probed his wound, 
and the bullet was found to have driven his scapular into 
his heart. On its being withdrawn, he presently expired, 
making profound acts of gratitude to the Blessed Virgin, 
who had prolonged his life miraculously, and thus pre- 
served him from eternal death. St. Simon Stock died at 
Bordeaux, a.d. 1265. 

Reflection. — To enjoy the privileges of the scapular, it is 
sufficient that it be received lawfully and worn devoutly. 
How, then, can any one fail to profit by a devotion so 
easy, so simple, and so wonderfully blessed? "He that 
shall overcome, shall thus be clothed in white garments, 
and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, and 
I will confess his name before My Father and before His 
angels" (Apoc. iii. 5). 

July 17.— ST. ALEXIUS. 

t. Alexius was the only son of parents pre-eminent 
among the Koman nobles for virtue, birth, and 
wealth. On his wedding-night, by God's special inspira- 
tion, he secretly quitted Kome, and journeying to Edessa, 
in the far East, gave away all that he had brought with 
him, content thenceforth to live on alms at the gate of Our 
Lady's church in that city. It came to pass that the ser- 
vants of St. Alexius, whom his father sent in search of 
him, arrived at Edessa, and seeing him among the poor 
at the gate of Our Lady's church, gave him an alms, not 
recognizing him. Whereupon the man of God, rejoicing, 
said, ' ' I thank Thee, O Lord, Who hast called me and 
granted that I should receive for Thy name's sake an alms 
from my own slaves. Deign to fulfil in me the w T ork Thou 
hast begun." After seventeen years, when his sanctity 




884 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL 



[JULY 17. 



was miraculously manifested by the Blessed Virgin's 
image, he once more sought obscurity by flight. On his 
way to Tarsus contrary winds drove his ship to Rome. 
There no one recognized in the wan and tattered mendi- 
cant the heir of Rome's noblest house ; not even his sor- 
rowing parents, who had vainly sent throughout the world 
in search of him. From his father's charity he begged a 
mean corner of his palace as a shelter, and the leavings 
of his table as food. Thus he spent seventeen years, bear- 




ing patiently the mockery and ill-usage of his own slaves, 
and witnessing daily the inconsolable grief of his spouse 
and parents. At last, when death had ended this cruel 
martyrdom, they learned too late, from a writing in his 
own hand, who it was that they had unknowingly sheltered. 
God bore testimony to His servant's sanctity by many 
miracles. He died early in the fifth century. 

Reflection. — We must always be ready to sacrifice our 
dearest and best natural affections in obedience to the call 
of our heavenly Father. "Call none your father upon 



JULY 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



885 



earth, for one is your Father in heaven " (Matt, xxiii. 9). 
Our Lord has taught us this not by words only, but by His 
own example and by that of His Saints. 

July 18.— ST. CAMILLUS OF LELLIS. 

he early years of Camillus gave no sign of sanctity. 
At the age of nineteen he took service with his 
father, an Italian noble, against the Turks, and after four 
years' hard campaigning found himself, through his vio- 
lent temper, reckless habits, and inveterate passion for 
gambling, a discharged soldier, and in such straitened cir- 
cumstances that he was obliged to work as a laborer on a 
Capuchin convent which was then building. A few words 
from a Capuchin friar brought about his conversion, and 
he resolved to become a religious. Thrice he entered the 
Capuchin novitiate, but each time an obstinate wound in 
his leg forced him to leave. He repaired to Eome for 
medical treatment, and there took St. Philip as his con- 
fessor, and entered the hospital of St. Giacomo, of which 
he became in time the superintendent. The carelessness 
of the paid chaplains and nurses towards the suffering 
patients now inspired him with the thought of founding a 
congregation to minister to their wants. With this end he 
was ordained priest, and in 1586 his community of the 
Servants of the Sick was confirmed by the Pope. Its use- 
fulness was soon felt, not only in hospitals, but in private 
houses. Summoned at every hour of the day and night, 
the devotion of Camillus never grew cold. With a woman's 
tenderness he attended to the needs of his patients. He 
wept with them, consoled them, and prayed with them. 
He knew miraculously the state of their souls ; and St. 
Philip saw angels whispering to two Servants of the Sick 
who were consoling a dying person. One day. a sick man 
said to the Saint, " Father, may I beg you to make up my 
bed? it is very hard." Camillus replied, " God forgive 



386 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY IB. 



you, brother ! You beg me ! Don't you know yet that you 
are to command me, for I am your servant and slave." 
" Would to God," he would cry, u that in the hour of my 




death one sigh or one blessing of these poor creatures might 
fall upon me ! " His prayer was heard. He was granted 
the same consolations in his last hour which he had so often 
procured for others. In the year 1614 he died with the 
full use of his faculties, after two weeks' saintly prepara- 
tion, as the priest was reciting the words of the ritual, 
" May Jesus Christ appear to thee with a mild and joyful 
countenance ! " 

Reflection. — St. Camillus venerated the sick as living 
images of Christ, and by ministering to them in this spirit 
did penance for the sins of his youth, led a life precious in 
merit, and from a violent and quarrelsome soldier became 
a gentle and tender Saint. 



JULY 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



387 



July 19.— ST. VINCENT OF PAUL. 

cS*t. Vincent was born a.d. 1576. In after-years, when 
adviser of the queen and oracle of the Church in 
France, he 'loved to recount how, in his youth, he had 
guarded his father's pigs. Soon after his ordination he 
was captured by corsairs, and carried into Barbary. He 
converted his renegade master, and escaped with him to 
France. Appointed chaplain-general of the galleys of 
France, his tender charity brought hope into those prisons 
where hitherto despair had reigned. A mother mourned 
her imprisoned son. Vincent put on his chains and took 
his place at the oar, and gave him to his mother. His 
charity embraced the poor, young and old, provinces deso- 
lated by civil war, Christians enslaved by the infidel. The 




poor man, ignorant and degraded, was to him the image of 
Him Who became as " a leper and no man." u Turn the 
medal," he said, "and you then will see Jesus Christ," 



388 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 20. 



He went through the streets of Paris at night, seeking the 
children who were left there to die. Once robbers rushed 
upon him, thinking he carried a treasure, but when he 
opened his cloak, they recognized him and his burden, and 
fell at his feet. Not only was St. Vincent the saviour of the 
poor, but also of the rich, for he taught them to do works 
of mercy. When the work for the foundlings was in 
danger of failing from want of funds, he assembled the 
ladies of the Association of Charity. He bade his most 
fervent daughters be present to give the spur to the others. 
Then he said, ' 4 Compassion and charity have made you 
adopt these little creatures as your children. You have 
been their mothers according to grace, when their own 
mothers abandoned them. Cease to be their mothers, that 
you may become their judges ; their life and death are in 
your hands. I shall now take your votes : it is time to 
pronounce sentence." The tears of the assembly were his 
only answer, and the work was continued. The Society of 
St. Vincent, the Priests of the Mission, and 25,000 Sisters 
of Charity still comfort the afflicted with the charity of St. 
Vincent of Paul. He died a.d. 1660. 

Reflection. — Most people who profess piety ask advice of 
directors about their prayers and spiritual exercises. Few 
inquire whether they are not in danger of damnation from 
neglect of works of charity. 

July 20— ST. MARGARET, Virgin and Martyr. 

ccording to the ancient Marty rologies, St. Margaret 
suffered at Antioch in Pisidia, in the last general 
persecution. She is said to have been instructed in the 
Faith by a Christian nurse, to have been prosecuted by her 
own father, a pagan priest, and, after many torments, to 
have gloriously finished her martyrdom by the sword. 
From the East, her veneration was exceedingly propagated 
in England, France, and Germany, in the eleventh century, 




JULY 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



389 




during the holy wars. Her body is now kept at Monte- 
Fiascone in Tuscany. 



ST. JEROME EMILIANI. 

t. Jerome Emiliani was a member of one of the patri- 
cian families of Venice, and, like many other Saints, 
in early life a soldier. He was appointed governor of a 
fortress among the mountains of Treviso, and whilst bravely 
defending his post, was made prisoner by the enemy. In 
the misery of his dungeon he invoked the great Mother of 
God, and promised, if she would set him free, to lead a 
new and a better life. Our Lady appeared, broke his fet- 
ters, and led him forth through the midst of his enemies. 
At Treviso he hung up his chains at her altar, dedicated 
himself to her service, and on reaching his home at Venice 
devoted himself to a life of active charity. His special love 
was for the deserted orphan children whom, in the times 
of the plague and famine, he found wandering in the 
streets. He took them home, clothed and fed them, and 



390 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 21. 



taught them the Christian truths. From Venice he passed 
to Padua and Verona, and in a few years had founded 
orphanages through Northern Italy. Some pious clerics and 
laymen, who had been his fellow-workers, fixed their abode 
in one of these establishments, and devoted themselves to 
the cause of education. The Saint drew up for them a rule 
of life, and thus was founded the Congregation, which still 
exists, of the Clerks Kegular of Somascha. St. Jerome 
died February 8, 1537, of an illness which he had caught in 
visiting the sick. 

Reflection. — Let us learn from St. Jerome to exert our- 
selves in behalf of the many hundred children whose souls 
are perishing around us for want of some one to show them 
the way to heaven. 

July 21 ST. VICTOR, Martyr. 

he Emperor Maximian, reeking with the blood of the 
Thebsean legion and many other martyrs, arrived at 
Marseilles, where the Church then flourished. The tyrant 
breathed here nothing but slaughter and fury, and his 
coming filled the Christians with fear and alarm. In this 
general consternation, Victor, a Christian officer in the 
troops, went about in the night-time from house to house, 
visiting the faithful and inspiring them with contempt of a 
temporal death and the love of eternal life. He was sur- 
prised in this, and brought before the prefects Asterius and 
Eutychius, who exhorted him not to lose the fruit of all his 
services and the favor of his prince for the worship of a 
dead man, as they called Jesus Christ. He answered that 
he renounced those recompenses if he could not enjoy them 
without being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son 
of God, Who vouchsafed to become man for our salvation, 
but Who raised Himself from the dead, and reigns with 
the Father, being God equally with Him. The whole court 
heard him with shouts of rage. Victor was bound hand 



JULY 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



891 



and foot and dragged through the streets of the city, ex- 
posed to the blows and insults of the populace. He was 
brought back bruised and bloody to the tribunal of the pre- 
fects, who, thinking his resolution must have been weak- 
ened by his sufferings, pressed him again to adore their 
gods. But the martyr, filled with the Holy Ghost, ex- 
pressed his respect for the emperor and his contempt for 
their gods. He was then hoisted on the rack and tortured 
a long time, until, the tormentors being at last weary, the 




prefect ordered him to be taken down and thrown into a 
dark dungeon. At midnight, God visited him by His 
angels ; the prison was filled with a light brighter than 
that of the sun, and the martyr sung with the angels the 
praises of God. Three soldiers who guarded the prison, 
seeing this light, cast themselves at the martyr's feet, asked 
his pardon, and desired Baptism. Victor instructed them 
as well as time would permit, sent for priests the same 
night, and, going with them to the seaside, had them bap- 
tized, and returned with them again to his prison. The 



392 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 22. 



next morning Maximian was informed of the conversion of 
the guards, and in a transport of rage sent officers to bring 
them all four before him. The three soldiers persevered in 
the confession of Jesus Christ, and by the emperor's orders 
were forthwith beheaded. Victor, after having been ex- 
posed to the insults of the whole city and been beaten with 
clubs and scourged with leather thongs, was carried back to 
prison, where he continued three days, recommending to 
God his martyrdom with many tears. After that term 
the emperor called him again before his tribunal, and com- 
manded the martyr to offer incense to a statue of Jupiter. 
Victor went up to the profane altar, and by a kick of his 
foot threw it down. The emperor ordered the foot to be 
forthwith chopped off, which the Saint suffered with great 
joy, offering to God these first-fruits of his body. A few 
moments after, the emperor condemned him to be put 
under the grindstone of a hand-mill and crushed to death. 
The executioners turned the wheel, and when part of his 
body was bruised and crushed the mill broke down. The 
Saint still breathed a little, but his head was immediately 
ordered to be cut off. His and the other three bodies were 
thrown into the sea, but, being cast ashore, were buried by 
the Christians in a grotto hewn out of a rock. 



July 22.— ST. MARY MAGDALEN. 

OF the earlier life of Mary Magdalen we know only that 
she was " a woman who was a sinner.' 7 From the 
depth of her degradation she raised her eyes to Jesus with 
sorrow, hope, and love. All covered with shame, she came 
in where Jesus was at meat, and knelt behind Him. She 
said not a word, but bathed His feet with her tears, wiped 
them with the hair of her head, kissed them in humility, 
and at their touch her sins and her stain were gone. Then 
she poured on them the costly unguent prepared for far 
other uses ; and His own divine lips rolled away her re- 



JtfLY 22. J 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



898 



proach, spoke her absolution, and bade her go in peace. 
Thenceforward she ministered to Jesus, sat at His feet, and 
heard His words. She was one of the family ' ' whom Jesus 
so loved " that He raised her brother Lazarus from the 
dead. Once again, on the eve of His Passion, she brought 
the precious ointment, and, now purified and beloved, 
poured it on His head, and the whole house of God is still 
filled with the fragrance of her anointing. She stood with 
Our Lady and St. John at the foot of the cross, the repre- 




sentative of the many who have had much forgiven. To 
her first, after His blessed Mother, and through her to His 
apostles, Our Lord gave the certainty of His resurrection ; 
and to her first He made Himself known, calling her by her 
name, because she was His. When the faithful were scat- 
tered by persecution the family of Bethany found refuge in 
Provence. The cave in which St. Mary lived for thirty 
years is still seen, and the chapel on the mountain-top, in 
which she was caught up daily, like St. Paul, to "visions 
and revelations of the Lord." When her end drew near 



894 



LITTLE PICTOHIAL 



[JULY 23. 



she was borne to a spot still marked by a u sacred pillar," 
where the holy Bishop Maximin awaited her ; and when she 
had received her Lord, she peacefully fell asleep in death. 

Reflection. — " Compunction of heart/' says St. Bernard, 
"is a treasure infinitely to be desired, and an unspeakable 
gladness to the heart. It is healing to the soul ; it is re- 
mission of sins ; it brings back again the Holy Spirit into 
the humble and loving heart. 1 ' 

July 23.— ST. APOLLINARIS, Bishop and Martyr 1 . 



t. Apollinaris was the first Bishop of Eavenna ; he sat 
twenty years, and was crowned with martyrdom in 
the reign of Vespasian. He was a disciple of St. Peter, 




and made by him Bishop of Ravenna. St. Peter Chrysolo- 
gus, the most illustrious among his successors, has left us a 
sermon in honor of our Saint, in which he often styles him 
a martyr ; but adds, that though he frequently suffered for 
the Faith, and ardently desired to lay down his life for 
Christ, yet God preserved him a long time to His Church, 



JULY 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



895 



and did not allow the persecutors to take away his life. 
So he seems to have been a martyr only by the torments he 
endured for Christ, which he survived at least some days. 
His body lay first at Classis, four miles from Ravenna, still a 
kind of suburb to that city, and its seaport till it was 
choked up by the sands. In the year 549 his relics were 
removed into a more secret vault in the same church. St. 
Fortunatus exhorted his friends to make pilgrimages to the 
tomb, and St. Gregory the Great ordered parties in doubt- 
ful suits at law to be sworn before it. Pope Honorius built 
a church under the name of Apollinaris in Rome, about the 
year 630. It occurs in all martyrologies, and the high ven- 
eration which the Church paid early to his memory is a 
sufficient testimony of his eminent sanctity and apostolic 
spirit. 

Reflection. — The virtue of the Saints was true and heroic, 
because humble and proof against all trials. Persevere in 
your good resolutions : it is not enough to begin well ; you 
must so continue to the end. 

July 24 ST. CHRISTINA, Virgin and Martyr. 

t. Christina was the daughter of a rich and powerful 
magistrate named Urbain. Her father, who was 
deep in the practices of heathenism, had a number of 
golden idols, which our Saint destroyed, and distributed the 
pieces among the poor. Infuriated by this act, Urbain 
became the persecutor of his daughter ; he had her whipped 
with rods and then thrown into a dungeon. Christina re- 
mained unshaken in her faith. Her tormentor then had 
her body torn by iron hooks, and fastened her to a rack 
beneath which a fire was kindled. But God watched over 
His servant and turned the flames upon the lookers-on. 
Christina was next seized, a heavy stone tied about her 
neck, and she was thrown into the lake of Bolsena, but she 
was saved by an angel, and outlived her father, who died 




896 



LITTLE PlCTOEIAL 



[jULY 2$. 



of spite. Later, this martyr suffered the most inhuman 
torments under the judge who succeeded her father, and 
finally was thrown into a burning furnace, where she re- 




mained, unhurt, for five days. By the power of Christ she 
overcame the serpents among which she was thrown ; then 
her tongue was cut out, and afterwards, being pierced with 
arrows, she gained the martyr's crown at Tyro, a city which 
formerly stood on an island in the lake of Bolsena in Italy, 
but was long since swallowed up by the waters. Her relics 
are now at Palermo in Sicily. 

July 25.— ST. JAMES, Apostle. 

*TTTmong the twelve, three were chosen as the familiar 
companions of our blessed Lord, and of these 
James was one. He alone, with Peter and John, was 
admitted to the house of Jairus when the dead maiden was 
raised to life. They alone were taken up to the high moun- 
tain apart, and saw the face of Jesus shining as the sun, 
and His garments white as snow ; and these three alone 



JULY 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



witnessed the fearful agony in Gethsemane. What was it 
that won James a place among the favorite three ? Faith, 
burning, impetuous, and outspoken, but which needed 
purifying before the "Son of Thunder" could proclaim 
the gospel of peace. It was James who demanded fire 
from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritans, and 
who sought the place of honor by Christ in His kingdom. 
Yet Our Lord, in rebuking his presumption, prophesied his 
faithfulness to death. When St, James was brought be- 
fore King Herod Agrippa, his fearless confession of Jesus 
crucified so moved the public prosecutor that he declared 
himself a Christian on the spot. Accused and accuser 
were hurried off together to execution, and on the road 
the latter begged pardon of the Saint, The apostle had 
long since forgiven him, but hesitated for a moment 
whether publicly to accept as a brother one still un- 




baptized. God quickly recalled to him the Church's faith, 
that the blood of martyrdom supplies for every sacrament, 
and, falling on his companion's neck, he embraced him, 



LITTLE PICTOBIAL 



[JULY 26. 



with the words, ' 1 Peace be with thee ! " Together then 
they knelt for the sword, and together received the crown. 

Reflection. — We must all desire a place in the kingdom 
of our Father ; but can we drink the chalice which He 
holds out to each ? Possumus, we must say with St. James 
— " We can " — but only in the strength of Him Who has 
drunk it first for us. 

July 26.— ST. ANNE. 

q£t. Anne was the spouse of St. Joachim, and was 
chosen by God to be the mother of Mary, His own 
blessed Mother on earth. They were both of the royal 




house of David, and their lives were wholly occupied in 
prayer and good works. One thing only was wanting to 
their union — they were childless, and this was held as a 
bitter misfortune among the Jews. At length, when Anne 
was an aged woman, Mary was born, the fruit rather of 
grace than of nature, and the child more of God than of 
man. With the birth of Mary the aged Anne began a new 



JULY 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



399 



life : she watched her every movement with reverent ten- 
derness, and felt herself hourly sanctified by the presence 
of her immaculate child. But she had vowed her daughter 
to God, to God Mary had consecrated herself again, and 
to Him Anne gave her back. Mary was three years old 
when Anne and Joachim led her up the Temple steps, saw 
her pass by herself into the inner sanctuary, and then saw 
her no more. Thus was Anne left childless in her lone old 
age, and deprived of her purest earthly joy just when she 
needed it most. She humbly adored the Divine Will, and 
began again to watch and pray, till God called her to un- 
ending rest with the Father and the Spouse of Mary in the 
home of Mary's Child. 

Reflection. — St. Anne is glorious among the Saints, not 
only as the mother of Mary, but because she gave Mary to 
God. Learn from her to reverence a divine vocation as 
the highest privilege, and to sacrifice every natural tie, 
however holy, at. the call of God. 

July 27 ST. PANTALEON, Martyr. 

t. Pantaleon was physician to the Emperor Gale- 
rius Maximianus, and a Christian, but, deceived 
by often hearing the false maxims of the world applauded, 
was unhappily seduced into an apostasy. But a zealous 
Christian called Hermolaus awakened his conscience to a 
sense of his guilt, and brought him again into the fold of 
the Church. The penitent ardently wished to expiate his 
crime by martyrdom ; and to prepare himself for the con- 
flict, when Diocletian's bloody persecution broke out at 
Mcomedia, in 303, he distributed all his possessions among 
the poor. ISTot long after this action he was taken up, and 
in his house were also apprehended Hermolaus, Hermip- 
pus, and Hermocrates. After suffering many torments, 
they were all condemned to lose their heads. St. Pant a- 




400 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 28. 



leon suffered the day after the rest. His relics were trans- 
lated to Constantinople, and there kept with great honor. 




The greatest part of them are now shown in the abbey of 
St. Denys near Paris, but his head is at Lyons. 

Reflection. — " With the elect thou shalt be elect, and 
with the perverse wilt be perverted." 



July 28 STS. NAZARIUS and CELSUS, Martyrs. 

t. Nazarius'S father was a heathen, and held a con- 
siderable post in the Koman army. His mother, 
Perpetua, was a zealous Christian, and was instructed by 
St. Peter, or his disciples, in the most perfect maxims of 
our holy faith. Nazarius embraced it with so much ardor 
that he copied in his life all the great virtues he saw in his 
teachers ; and out of zeal for the salvation of others, he 
left Rome, his native city, and preached the Faith in many 
places with a fervor and disinterestedness becoming a 
disciple of the apostles. Arriving at Milan, he was there 
beheaded for the Faith, together with Celsus, a youth 




JULY 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



401 



whom he carried with him to assist him in his travels. 
These martyrs suffered soon after Nero had raised the 
first persecution. Their bodies were buried separately in a 
garden without the city, where they were discovered and 
taken up by St. Ambrose, in 395. In the tomb of St. 
Nazarius, a vial of the Saint's blood was found as fresh 
and red as if it had been spilt that day. The faithful 
stained handkerchiefs with some drops, and also formed a 
certain paste with it, a portion of which St. Ambrose sent 
to St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia. St. Ambrose con- 
veyed the bodies of the two martyrs into the new church 
of the apostles, which he had just built. A woman was 
delivered of an evil spirit in their presence. St. Ambrose 
sent some of these relics to St. Paulinus of Nola, who re- 
ceived them with great respect, as a most valuable present, 
as he testifies. 




Reflection. — The martyrs died as the outcasts of the 
world, but are crowned by God with immortal honor. The 
glory of the world is false and transitory, and an empty 



402 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[JULY 29. 



bubble or shadow, but that of virtue is true, solid, and 
permanent, even in the eyes of men. 

July 29.— ST. MARTHA, Virgin. 

cSt. John tells us that " Jesus loved Martha and Mary 
and Lazarus," and yet but few glimpses are vouch- 
safed us of them. First, the sisters are set before us with 
a word. Martha received Jesus into her house, and was 
busy in outward, loving, lavish service, while Mary sat in 




silence at the feet she had bathed with her tears. Then, 
their brother is ill, and they send to Jesus, u Lord, he 
whom Thou lovest is sick." And in His own time the Lord 
came, and they go out to meet Him ; and then follows 
that scene of unutterable tenderness and of sublimity un- 
surpassed : the silent waiting of Mary ; Martha strong in 
faith, but realizing so vividly, with her practical turn of 
mind, the fact of death, and hesitating: ' ' Canst Thou 
show Thy wonders in the grave ? " And then once again, 
on the eve of His Passion, we see Jesus at Bethany. 



JULY 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



408 



Martha, true to her character, is serving ; Mary, as at 
first, pours the precious ointment, in adoration and love, 
on His divine head. And then we find the tomb of St. 
Martha, at Tarascon, in Provence. When the storm of 
persecution came, the family of Bethany, with a few com- 
panions, w 7 ere put into a boat, without oars or sail, and 
borne to the coast of France. St. Mary's tomb is at St. 
Baume ; St. Lazarus is venerated as the founder of the 
Church of Marseilles ; and the memory of the virtues and 
labors of St. Martha is still fragrant at Avignon and 
Tarascon. 

Reflection. — When Martha received Jesus into her house, 
she was naturally busy in preparations for such a Guest. 
Mary sat at His feet, intent alone on listening to His 
gracious words. Her sister thought that the time required 
other service than this, and asked Our Lord to bid Mary 
help in serving. Once again Jesus spoke in defence of 
Mary. "Martha, Martha," He said, " thou art lovingly 
anxious about many things; be not over-eager; do thy 
chosen work with recollect edness. Judge not Mary. Hers 
is the good part, the one only thing really necessary. Thine 
will be taken away, that something better be given thee." 
The life of action ceases when the body is laid down ; but 
the life of contemplation endures and is perfected in 
heaven. 

July 30.— ST. GERMANUS, Bishop, 

IN his youth Germ anus gave little sign of sanctity. 
He was of noble birth, and at first practised the 
law at Kome. After a time the emperor placed him high 
in the army. But his one passion was the chase. He was 
so carried away as even to retain in his sports the super- 
stitions of the pagan huntsmen. Yet it was revealed to 
the Bishop of Auxerre that Germanus would be his suc- 
cessor, and he gave him the tonsure almost by main force. 



404 



LITTLE! PICTORIAL 



[JULY BO. 



Forthwith Germanus became another man, and, making 
over his lands to the Church, adopted a life of humble 
penance. At that time the Pelagian heresy was laying 




waste England, and Germanus was chosen by the reigning 
Pontiff to rescue the Britons from the snare of Satan. 
With St. Lupus he preached in the fields and highways 
throughout the land. At last, near Verulam, he met the 
heretics face to face, and overcame them utterly with the 
Catholic and Koman faith. He ascribed this triumph to 
the intercession of St. Alban, and offered public thanks at 
his shrine. Towards the end of his stay, his old skill in 
arms won over the Picts and Scots the complete but blood- 
less " Alleluia" victory, so called because the newly- 
baptized Britons, led by the Saint, routed the enemy with 
the Paschal cry. Germanus visited England a second time 
with St. Severus. He died a.d. 448, while interceding 
with the emperor for the people of Brittany. 

Reflection. — "Hold the form of sound words, which 
thou hast heard of me in faith, and in the love which is in 
Christ Jesus" (II. Tim. i. 13). 



JULY 31.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



405 



July 31.— ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA. 

^^t. Ignatius was born at Loyola in Spain, in the year 
1491. He served his king as a courtier and a sol- 
dier till his thirtieth year. At that age, being laid low by 
a wound, he received the call of divine grace to leave the 
world. He embraced poverty and humiliation, that he 
might become more like to Christ, and won others to join 
him in the service of God. Prompted by their love for 
Jesus Christ, Igjpatius and his companions made a vow to 
go to the Holy Land, but war broke out, and prevented the 
execution of their project. Then they turned to the Vicar 
of Jesus Christ, and placed themselves under his obedi- 
ence. This was the beginning of the Society of Jesus. 
Our Lord promised St. Ignatius that the precious heritage 
of His Passion should never fail his Society, a heritage of 




contradictions and persecutions. St. Ignatius was cast 
into prison at Salamanca, on a suspicion of heresy. To a 
friend who expressed sympathy with him on account of 



406 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[august 1. 



his imprisonment, he replied, "It is a sign that you have 
but little love of Christ in your heart, or you would not 
deem it so hard a fate to be in chains for His sake. I 
declare to you that all Salamanca does not contain as many 
fetters, manacles, and chains as I long to wear for the 
love of Jesus Christ." St. Ignatius went to his crown on 
the 31st July, 1556. 

Reflection. — Ask St. Ignatius to obtain for you the grace 
to desire ardently the greater glory of God, even though it 
may cost you much suffering and humiliation. 

August 1.— ST. PETER'S CHAINS. 

^tt^erod Agrippa, King of the Jews, having put to 



c*-& death St. James the Great in the year 44, in order 
to gain the affection and applause of his people, caused St. 
Peter, the prince of the sacred college, to be cast into 
prison. It was his intention to put him publicly to death 
after Easter. The whole Church at Jerusalem put up its 
prayers to God for the deliverance of the chief pastor of 
His whole flock, and God favorably heard them. The king 
took all precautions possible to prevent the escape of his 
prisoner. St. Peter lay fast asleep, on the very night 
before the day intended for his execution, when it pleased 
God to deliver him out of the hands of his enemies. He 
was guarded by sixteen soldiers, four of whom always kept 
sentry in their turns : two in the same dungeon with him, 
and two at the gate. He was fastened to the ground by 
two chains, and slept between the two soldiers. In the 
middle of the night, a bright light shone in the prison, and 
an angel appeared near him, and, striking him on the side, 
awaked him out of his sleep, and bade him instantly arise, 
gird his coat about him, put on his sandals and his cloak, 
and follow him. The apostle did so, for the chains had 
dropped off from his hands. Following his guide, he 
passed after him through the first and second wards or 




AUGUST 1.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



40? 



watches, and through the iron gate which led into the city, 
which opened to them of its own accord. The angel con- 
ducted him through one street, then, suddenly disappear- 
ing, left him to seek some, asylum. The apostle went 
directly to the house of Mary the mother of John, sur- 
named Mark, where several disciples were met together, 
and were sending up their prayers to heaven for his de- 
liverance. As he stood knocking without, a young woman , 




knowing Peter's voice, ran in and informed the company 
that he was at the door ; they concluded it must be his 
guardian angel, sent by God upon some extraordinary 
account, until, being let in, he related to them the whole 
manner of his miraculous escape ; and having enjoined 
them to give notice thereof to St. James and the rest of 
the brethren, he withdrew to a place of more retirement 
and security, carrying, wherever he went, the heavenly 
blessing and life. 

Reflection. — This miracle affords a confirmation of the 
divine promise, " If two of you shall consent upon earth 



408 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL 



[AUGUST 2. 



concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be 
done to them by My Father Who is in heaven." 

August 2.— ST. STEPHEN, Pope and Martyr, 

^^t. Stephen was by birth a Koman, and, being pro- 
moted to holy orders, was made archdeacon under 
the holy Popes St. Cornelius and St. Lucius. The latter 
having suffered martyrdom, St. Stephen was chosen to 
succeed him, and was elected Pope on the 3d of May, 253. 




The controversy concerning the rebaptization of heretics 
gave St. Stephen much trouble. It is the teaching of the 
Catholic Church, that Baptism given in the name of the 
three persons of the Blessed Trinity is valid, though it 
be conferred by a heretic. St. Stephen suffered himself 
patiently to be traduced as a favorer of heresy in approving 
heretical baptism, not doubting but those great men who 
by mistaken zeal were led astray would, when the heat of 
the dispute had subsided, calmly open their eyes to the 
truth. Thus by his zeal he preserved the integrity of faith, 



AUGUST 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



409 



and by his toleration and forbearance saved many souls. 
The persecutions becoming violent, he assembled the faith- 
ful together in the underground tombs of the martyrs, to 
celebrate Mass and to exhort them to remain true to Christ. 
On the 2d of August, 257, while seated in his pontifical 
chair, he was beheaded by the satellites of the emperor ; 
and the chair is still shown, stained with his blood. 

ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI. 

t. Alphonsus was born of noble parents, near Naples, 
JF^ in 1696. His spiritual training was intrusted to 
the Fathers of the Oratory in that city, and from his boy- 
hood Alphonsus was known as a most devout Brother of the 
Little Oratory. At the early age of sixteen he was made 
doctor in law, and he threw himself into this career with 
ardor and success. A mistake, by which he lost an im- 
portant cause, showed him the vanity of human fame, and 
determined him to labor only for the glory of God. He 
entered the priesthood, devoting himself to the most neg- 
lected souls ; and to carry on this work he founded later 
the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Kedeemer. 
At the age of sixty-six he became Bishop of St. Agatha, 
and undertook the reform of his diocese with the zeal of a 
Saint. He made a vow never to lose time, and, though his 
life was spent in prayer and work, he composed a vast 
number of books, filled with such science, unction, and 
wisdom that he has been declared one of the Doctors of the 
Church. St. Alphonsus wrote his first book at the age of 
forty-nine, and in his eighty-third year had published 
about sixty volumes, when his director forbade him to 
write more. Very many of these books w T ere written in the 
half-hours snatched from his labors as missionary, religious 
superior, and Bishop, or in the midst of continual bodily 
and mental sufferings. With his left hand he would hold 
a piece of marble against his aching head while his right 



416 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[august 8. 



hand wrote. Yet he counted no time wasted which was 
spent in charity. He did not refuse to hold a long corre- 
spondence with a simple soldier who asked his advice, or 
to play the harpsichord while he taught his novices to sing 
spiritual canticles. He lived in evil times, and met with 
many persecutions and disappointments. For his last 
seven years he was prevented by constant sickness from 
oifering the Adorable Sacrifice ; but he received Holy Com- 
munion daily, and his love for Jesus Christ and his trust 
in Mary's prayers sustained him to the end. He died in 
1787, in his ninety-first year. 

Reflection. — Let us do with all our heart the duty of 
each day, leaving the result to God, as well as the care of 
the future. 

August 3.— THE FINDING OF ST. STEPHEN'S RELICS. 

His second festival in honor of the holy protomartyr 
St. Stephen was instituted by the Church on the 
occasion of the discovery of his precious remains. His 
body lay long concealed, under the ruins of an old tomb, 
in a place twenty miles from Jerusalem, called Capharga- 
mala, where stood a church which was served by a vener- 
able priest named Lucian. In the year 415, on Friday, the 
3d of December, about nine o'clock at night, Lucian was 
sleeping in his bed in the baptistery, where he commonly 
lay in order to guard the sacred vessels of the church. 
Being half awake, he saw a tall, comely old man of a 
venerable aspect, who approached him, and, calling him 
thrice by his name, bid him go to Jerusalem and tell 
Bishop John to come and open the tombs in which his re- 
mains and those of certain other servants of Christ lay, 
that through their means God might open to many the 
gates of His clemency. This vision was repeated twice. 
After the second time, Lucian went to Jerusalem and laid 
the whole affair before Bishop John, who bade him go and 



AUGUST 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



411 



search for the relics, which, the Bishop concluded, would 
be found under a heap of small stones which lay in a field 
near his church. In digging up the earth here, three 
coffins or chests were found. Lucian sent immediately to 
acquaint Bishop John with this. He was then at the 
Council of Diospolis, and, taking along with him Eutonius, 
Bishop of Sebaste, and Eleutherius, Bishop of Jericho, 
came to the place. Upon the opening of St. Stephen's 
coffin the earth shook, and there came out of the coffin 




such an agreeable odor that no one remembered to have 
ever smelled anything like it. There was a vast multitude 
of people assembled in that place, among whom were many 
persons afflicted with divers distempers, of whom seventy- 
three recovered their health upon the spot. They kissed 
the holy relics, and then shut them up. The Bishop con- 
sented to leave a small portion of them at Caphargamala ; 
the rest were carried in the coffin, with singing of psalms 
and hymns, to the Church of Sion at Jerusalem. The 
translation was performed on the 26th of December, on 
which day the Church hath ever since honored the memory 



412 



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[AUGUST 4. 



of St. Stephen, commemorating the discovery of his relics 
on the 3d of August probably on account of the dedication 
of some church in his honor. 

Reflection. — St. Austin, speaking of the miracles of St. 
Stephen, addresses himself to his flock as follows: " Let 
us so desire to obtain temporal blessings by his intercession 
that we may merit, in imitating him, those which are 
eternal." 

August 4. — ST. DOMINIC. 

C^T. Dominic was born in Spain, a. d. 1170. As a stu- 
dent, he sold his books to feed the poor in a famine, 
and offered himself in ransom for a slave. At the age of 
twenty-five he became superior of the Canons Regular of 
Osma, and accompanied his Bishop to France. There his 
heart was well-nigh broken by the ravages of the Albigen- 
sian heresy, and his life was henceforth devoted to the con- 
version of heretics and the defence of the Faith. For this 
end he established his threefold religious Order. The 
convent for nuns was founded first, to rescue young girls 
from heresy and crime. Then a company of apostolic men 
gathered around him, and became the Order of Friar 
Preachers. Lastly came the Tertiaries, persons of both 
sexes living in the world. God blessed the new Order, and 
France, Italy, Spain, and England welcomed the Preaching 
Friars. Our Lady took them under her special protection, 
and whispered to St. Dominic as he preached. It w r as in 
1208, while St. Dominic knelt in the little chapel of Notre 
Dame de la Prouille, and implored the great Mother of God 
to save the Church, that Our Lady appeared to him, gave 
him the Rosary, and bade him go forth and preach. Beads 
in hand, he revived the courage of the Catholic troops, led 
them to victory against overwhelming numbers, and finally 
crushed the heresy. His nights were spent in prayer ; and, 
though pure as a virgin, thrice before morning broke he 



AUGUST 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



413 



scourged himself to blood. His words rescued countless 
souls, and three times raised the dead to life. At length, 
on August 6, 1221, at the age of fifty-one, he gave up his 
soul to God. 




Reflection. — " God has never," said St. Dominic, " re- 
fused me what I have asked ; " and he has left us the 
Rosary, that we may learn, with Mary's help, to pray easily 
and simply in the same holy trust. 



August 5.— THE DEDICATION OF ST. MARY AD NIVES. 

here are in Borne three patriarchal churches, in which 
the Pope officiates on different festivals. These are 
the Basilics of St. John Lateran, St. Peter's on the Vatican 
Hill, and St. Mary Major. This last is so called because it 
is, both in antiquity and dignity, the first church in Rome 
among those that are dedicated to God in honor of the 
Virgin Mary. The name of the Liberian Basilic was given 
it because it was founded in the time of Pope Liberius, in 
the fourth century ; it was consecrated, under the title of 



414 



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[AUGUST 5. 



the Virgin Mary, by Sixtus III., about the year 435. It is 
also called St. Mary ad Nives, or at the snoiv, from a popu- 
lar tradition that the Mother of God chose this place for a 
church under her invocation by a miraculous snow that 
fell upon this spot in summer, and by a vision in which she 
appeared to a patrician named John, who munificently 
founded and endowed this church in the pontificate of 
Liberius. The same Basilic has sometimes been known by 
the name of St. Mary ad Prwsepe, from the holy crib or 
manger of Bethlehem, in which Christ was laid at His 
birth. It resembles an ordinary manger, is kept in a case 
of massive silver, and in it lies an image of a little child, 
also of silver. On Christmas Day the holy manger is taken 
out of the case, and exposed. It is kept in a sumptuous 
subterraneous chapel in this church. 

Reflection. — To render our supplications the more effi- 
cacious, we ought to unite them in spirit to those of all 




fervent penitents and devout souls, in invoking this ad- 
vocate for sinners. 



AUGUST 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



415 




August 6 THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD. 

Our divine Redeemer, being in Galilee about a year 
before His sacred Passion, took with Him St. Peter 
and the two sons of Zebedee, Sts. James and John, and led 
them to a retired mountain. Tradition assures us that this 
was Mount Thabor, which is exceedingly high and beauti- 
ful, and was anciently covered with green trees and shrubs, 
and was very fruitful. It rises something like a sugar-loaf, 
in a vast plain in the middle of Galilee. This was the 
place in which the Man-God appeared in His glory. Whilst 
Jesus prayed, He suffered that glory which was always due 
to His sacred humility, and of which, for our sake, He de- 
prived it, to diffuse a ray over His whole body. His face 
was altered and shone as the sun, and His garments became 
white as snow. Moses and Elias were seen by the three 
apostles in His company on this occasion, and were heard 
discoursing with Him of the death which He was to suffer 
in Jerusalem. The three apostles were wonderfully de- 
lighted with this glorious vision, and St. Peter cried out to 



416 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[august 7. 



Christ, " Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make 
three tents: one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for 
Elias." Whilst St. Peter was speaking, there came, on a 
sudden, a bright shining cloud from heaven, an emblem of 
the presence of God's majesty, and from out of this cloud 
was heard a voice which said, " This is My beloved Son, in 
Whom I am well pleased ; hear ye Him." The apostles 
that were present, upon hearing this voice, w T ere seized with 
a sudden fear, and fell upon the ground ; but Jesus, going 
to them, touched them, and bade them to rise. They 
immediately did so, and saw no one but Jesus standing in 
his ordinary state. This vision happened in the night. 
As they went down the mountain early the next morning, 
Jesus bade them not to tell any one w T hat they had seen till 
He should be risen from the dead. 

Reflection. — From the contemplation of this glorious 
mystery we ought to conceive a true idea of future happi- 
ness ; if this once possess our souls, we will think nothing of 
any difficulties or labors we can meet with here, but regard 
with great indifference all the goods and evils of this life, 
provided we can but secure our portion in the kingdom of 
God's glory. 

August 7.— ST. CAJETAN. 

Oajetan was born at Yicenza, in 1480, of pious and 
noble parents, who dedicated him to our blessed 
Lady. From childhood he was known as the Saint, and in 
later years as "the hunter of souls." A distinguished 
student, he left his native town to seek obscurity in Eome, 
but was there forced to accept office at the court of Julius 
II. On the death of that Pontiff he returned to Vicenza, 
and disgusted his relatives by joining the Confraternity of 
St. Jerome, whose members were drawn from the lowest 
classes ; while he spent his fortune in building hospitals, 
and devoted himself to nursing the plague-stricken, To 



AUGUST 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



417 



renew the lives of the clergy, he instituted the first com- 
munity of Regular Clerks, known as Theatines. They de- 
voted themselves to preaching, the administration of the 
sacraments, and the careful performance of the Church's 
rites and ceremonies. St. Cajetan was the first to intro- 
duce the Forty Hours' Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 
as an antidote to the heresy of Calvin. He had a most 
tender love for our blessed Lady, and his piety was re- 
warded, for one Christmas eve she placed the Infant Jesus 




in his arms. "When the Germans, under the Constable 
Bourbon, sacked Rome, St. Cajetan was barbarously 
scourged, to extort from him riches which he had long 
before securely stored in heaven. When St. Cajetan was 
on his death-bed, resigned to the will of God, eager for 
pain to satisfy his love, and for death to attain to life, he 
beheld the Mother of God, radiant with splendor and sur- 
rounded by ministering seraphim. In profound venera- 
tion, he said, "Lady, bless me ! " Mary replied, " Cajetan, 
receive the blessing of my Son, and know that I am here as 
a. reward for the sincerity of your love, and to lead you to 



418 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 8. 



paradise." She then exhorted him to patience in fighting 
an evil spirit who troubled him, and gave orders to the 
choirs of angels to escort his soul in triumph to heaven. 
Then, turning her countenance full of majesty and sweet- 
ness upon him, she said, " Cajetan, my Son calls thee. 
Let us go in peace." Worn out with toil and sickness, he 
went to his reward in 1547. 

Reflection. — Imitate St. Cajetan's devotion to our blessed 
Lady, by invoking her aid before every work. 



August 8.— ST. CYRIACUS and his Companions, 
Martyrs. 

t. Cyriacus was a holy deacon at Borne, under the 
Popes Marcellitms and Marcellus. In the persecu- 
tion of Diocletian, in 303, he was crowned with a glorious 




martyrdom in that city. With him suffered also Largus 
and Smaragdus, and twenty others. Their bodies were 
first buried near the place of their execution, on the Sala- 
rian Way, but were soon after removed to a farm of the 




AUGUST 



LIVES 0# THE SAiNTS. 



410 



devout Lady Lueina, on the Ostian Road, on the eighth 
day of August. 

Reflection. — To honor the martyrs and duly celebrate 
their festivals, we must learn their spirit and study to 
imitate them according to the circumstances of our state. 
We must, like them, resist evil, must subdue our passions, 
suffer afflictions with patience, and bear with others with- 
out murmuring or complaining. The cross is the ladder 
by which we must ascend to heaven. 

BLESSED PETER FAVRE. 

Born a.d. 1506, of poor Savoyard shepherds, Peter, at 
his earnest request, was sent to school, and in 
after-years to the University of Paris. His college friends 
were St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. Igna- 
tius found the young man's heart ready for his thoughts of 
apostolic zeal ; Peter became his first companion, and in 
the year of England's revolt was ordained the first priest 
of the new Society of Jesus. From that day to the close 
of his life he was ever in the van of the Church's strug- 
gles with falsehood and sin. Boldly facing heresy in Ger- 
many, he labored not less diligently to rouse up the dor- 
mant faith and charity of Catholic courts and Catholic 
lands. The odor of Blessed Peter's virtues drew after him 
into religion the Duke of Gandia, Francis Borgia, and a 
young student of Nimeguen, Peter Canisius, both to be- 
come Saints like their master. The Pope, Paul III., had 
chosen Blessed Favre to be his theologian at the Council of 
Trent, and King John III., of Portugal, wished to send him 
as patriarch and apostle into Abyssinia. Sick and worn 
with labor, but obedient unto death, the father hastened 
back to Rome, where his last illness came upon him. He 
died, in his fortieth year, as one would wish to die, in the 
very arms of his best friend and spiritual father, St. 
Ignatius. 



420 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[august 9. 



Reflection. — As the body sinks under fatigue unless sup- 
ported by food, so external works, however holy, wear out 
the soul which is not regularly nourished by prayer. In 
the most crowded day we can make time briefly and 
secretly to lift our soul to God and draw new strength 
from Him. 

August 9 ST. ROMANUS, Martyr. 

^^t. Komanus was a soldier in Kome at the time of the 
martyrdom of St. Laurence. Seeing the joy and 
constancy with which that holy martyr suffered his tor- 




ments, he was moved to embrace the Faith, and addressing 
himself to St. Laurence, was instructed and baptized by 
him in prison. Confessing aloud what he had done, he 
was arraigned, condemned, and beheaded the day before 
the martyrdom of St Laurence. Thus he arrived at his 
crown before his guide and master. The body of St. Ro- 
manus was first buried on the road to Tibur, but his re- 



AUGUST 10.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



421 



mains were translated to Lucca, where they are kept under 
the high altar of a beautiful church which bears his name. 

Reflection. — We are bound to glorify God by our lives, 
and Christ commands that our good works shine before 
men. It was the usual saying of the apostle St. Matthias, 
" The faithful sins if his neighbor sins." Such ought to be 
the zeal of every one to instruct and edify his neighbor by 
word and example. 

August 10.— ST. LAURENCE, Martyr. 

t. Laurence was the chief among the seven deacons 
of the Roman Church. In the year 258 Pope 
Sixtus was led out to die, and St. Laurence stood by, weep- 
ing that he could not share his fate. " I was your min- 
ister," he said, "when you consecrated the blood of Our 
Lord ; why do you leave me behind now that you are 
about to shed your own ? " The holy Pope comforted him 
with the words, ' ' Do not weep, my son ; in three days you 
will follow me." This prophecy came true. The prefect 
of the city knew the rich offerings which the Christians 
put into the hands of the clergy, and he demanded the 
treasures of the Koman Church from Laurence, their 
guardian. The Saint promised, at the end of three days, 
to show him riches exceeding all the wealth of the empire, 
and sec about collecting the poor, the infirm, and the 
religious who lived by the alms of the faithful. He then 
bade the prefect "see the treasures of the Church." 
Christ, whom Laurence had served in his poor, gave him 
strength in the conflict which ensued. Boasted over a 
slow fire, he made sport of his pains. "Iam done enough, " 
he said, " eat, if you will." At length Christ, the Father 
of the poor, received him into eternal habitations. God 
showed by the glory which shone around St. Laurence the 
value He set upon his love for the poor. Prayers innumer- 
able were granted at his tomb ; and he continued from his 




LITTLE PICTOKIAL 



[august 11. 



throne in heaven his charity to those in need, granting 
them, as St. Augustine says, "the smaller graces which 
they sought, and leading them to the desire of better 
gifts." 




Reflection. — Our Lord appears before us in the persons 
of the poor. Charity to them is a great sign of predestina- 
tion. It is almost impossible, the holy Fathers assure us, 
for any one who is charitable to the poor for Christ's sake 
to perish. 



August 11.— STS. TIBURTIUS and SUSANNA, Martyrs. 

grestius Chromatius was vicar to the prefect of 
Kome, and had condemned several martyrs in the 
reign of Carinus ; and in the first years of Diocletian, St. 
Tranquillinus, being brought before him, assured him that, 
having been afflicted with the gout, he had recovered a 
perfect state of health by being baptized. Chromatius 
was troubled with the same distemper, and being con- 
vinced by this miracle of the truth of the Gospel, sent for 
a priest, and, receiving the Sacrament of Baptism, was 




AUGUST 11.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



423 



freed from that corporal infirmity. Chromatius's son, 
Tiburtius, was ordained subdeacon, and was soon after 
betrayed to the persecutors, condemned to many torments, 
and at length beheaded on the Lavican Koad, three miles 
from Rome, where a church was afterward built. His 
father, Chromatius, retiring into the country, lived there 
concealed, in the fervent practice of all Christian virtues. 

St. Susanna was nobly born in Rome, and is said to 
have been niece to Pope Caius. Having made a vow of 
virginity, she refused to marry, on which account she was 
impeached as a Christian, and suffered with heroic con- 
stancy a cruel martyrdom. St. Susanna suffered towards 
the beginning of Diocletian's reign, about the year 295. 

Reflection. — Sufferings were to the martyrs the most 
distinguishing mercy, extraordinary graces, and sources of 
the greatest crowns and glory. All afflictions which God 




sends are in like manner the greatest mercies and bless- 
ings ; they are the most precious talents to be improved by 
us to the increasing of our love and affection to God, and 



LITTLE i-icTOKIAL 



[august 12. 



the exercise of the most heroic virtues of self-denial, 
patience, humility, resignati3n, and penance. 

August 12.— ST. CLARE, Abbess. 

|^vn Palm Sunday, March 17, 1212, the Bishop of Assisi 
left the altar to present a palm to a noble maiden, 
eighteen years of age, whom bashfulness had detained in 
her place. This maiden was St. Clare. Already she had 




learnt from St. Francis to hate the world, and was secretly 
resolved to live for God alone. The same night she 
escaped, with one companion, to the Church of the Por- 
tiuncula, where she was met by St. Francis and his breth- 
ren. At the altar of Our Lady, St. Francis cut off her 
hair, clothed her in his habit of penance, a piece of sack- 
cloth, with his cord as a girdle. Thus was she espoused to 
Christ. In a miserable house outside Assisi she founded 
her Order, and was joined by her sister, fourteen years of 
age, and afterwards by her mother and other noble ladies. 
They went barefoot, observed perpetual abstinence, con- 



AtlOtTS? 13.] LIVES OF THEl SAINTS. 425 

stant silence, and perfect poverty. While the Saracen 
army of Frederick II. was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, 
a body of infidels advanced to assault St. Clare's convent, 
which stood outside Assisi. The Saint caused the Blessed 
Sacrament to be placed in a monstrance, above the gate of 
the monastery facing the enemy, and kneeling before it, 
prayed, "Deliver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those 
who confess to Thee." A voice from the Host replied, 
" My protection will never fail you." A sudden panic 
seized the infidel host, which took to flight, and the Saint's 
convent was spared. During her illness of twenty-eight 
years the Holy Eucharist was her only support and spin- 
ning linen for the altar the one work of her hands. She 
died a.d. 1253, as the Passion was being read, and Our 
Lady and the angels conducted her to glory. 

Reflection. — In a luxurious and effeminate age, the 
daughters of St. Clare still bear the noble title of poor, and 
preach by their daily lives the poverty of Jesus Christ. 

August 13 ST. RADEGUNDES, Queen. 

t. Radegundes was the daughter of a king of Thurin- 
gia who was assassinated by his brother ; a war 
ensuing, our Saint, at the age of twelve, was made prisoner 
and carried captive by Clotaire, King of Soissons, who had 
her instructed in the Christian religion and baptized. The 
great mysteries of our Faith made such an impression on 
her tender soul that she gave herself to God with her whole 
heart, and desired to consecrate to him her virginity ; she 
was obliged at last, however, to yield to the king's wish 
that she should become his wife. As a great queen, she 
continued no less an enemy to sloth and vanity than she 
was before, and divided her time chiefly between her ora- 
tory, the Church, and the care of the poor. She also kept 
long fasts, and during Lent wore a hair-cloth under her 
rich garments. Clotaire was at first pleased with her de- 




426 



LITTLE riCTOiUAL 



[AUGtJST 18. 



votions, and allowed her full liberty in them, but afterward 
used frequently to reproach her for her pious exercises, 
saying he had married a nun rather than a queen, who 




converted his court into a monastery. Seeing that Clotaire 
was inflamed by bad passions, our Saint asked and obtained 
his leave to retire from court. She went to Noyon, and 
was consecrated deaconess by St. Medard. Radegundes 
first withdrew to Sais, and some time after she went to 
Poitiers, and there built a great monastery. She had a 
holy virgin, named Agnes, made the first abbess, and paid 
to her an implicit obedience in all things, not reserving to 
herself the disposal of the least thing. King Clotaire, re- 
penting of his evil conduct, wished her to return to court, 
but, through the intercession of St. Germanus of Paris, she 
was allowed to remain in her retirement, where she died 
on the 13th of August, 587. 



AUGUST 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



427 



August 14. — ST. EUSEBIUS, Priest. 
/^he Chure'i celebrates this day the memory of St. 

Eusebius, who opposed the Arians, at Rome, with 
so much zeal. He was imprisoned in his room by order of 
the Emperor Constantius, and sanctified his captivity by 
constant prayer. Another Saint of the same name, a 
priest and martyr, is commemorated on this day. In the 
reign of Diocletian and Maximian, before they had pub 
lished any new edicts against the Christians, Eusebius, a 
holy priest, a man eminently endowed with the spirit of 
prayer and all apostolical virtues, suffered death for the 
Faith, probably in Palestine. The Emperor Maximian 
happening to be in that country, complaint was made to 
Maxentius, president of the province, that Eusebius dis- 
tinguished himself by his zeal in invoking and preaching 




Christ, and the holy man was seized. Maximian was by 
birth a barbarian, and one of the roughest and most brutal 
and savage of all men. Yet the undaunted and modest 
virtue of this stranger, set off by a heavenly grace, struck 



428 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 15. 



him with awe. He desired to save the servant of Christ, 
but, like Pilate, w 7 ould not give himself any trouble or 
hazard incurring the displeasure of those w r hom on all 
other occasions he despised. Maxentius commanded Euse- 
bius to sacrifice to the gods, and on the Saint refusing, the 
president condemned him to be beheaded. Eusebius, hear- 
ing the sentence pronounced, said aloud, "I thank Your 
goodness and praise Your power, O Lord Jesus Christ, 
that, by calling me to the trial of my fidelity, You have 
treated me as one of Yours.'' He at that instant heard a 
voice from heaven saying to him, 44 If you had not been 
found worthy to suffer, you could not be admitted into the 
court of Christ or to the seats of the just." Being come to 
the place of execution, he knelt down, and his head was 
struck off. 

Reflection. — Let us learn, from the example of the Saints, 
courage in the service of God. He calls upon us to endure 
suffering of body and of mind, if it is necessary, to prove 
our fidelity to Him ; and He promises to support us by His 
strength, His light, and His heavenly consolation. 

August 15. — THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED 
VIRGIN MARY. 

ON this festival the Church commemorates the happy 
departure from life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and 
her translation into the kingdom of her Son, in which she 
received from Him a crown of immortal glory, and a throne 
above all the other Saints and heavenly spirits. After 
Christ, as the triumphant Conqueror of death and hell, 
ascended into heaven, His blessed Mother remained at 
Jerusalem, persevering in prayer with the disciples, till, 
with them, she had received the Holy Ghost. She lived to 
a very advanced age, but finally paid the common debt of 
nature, none among the children of Adam being exempt 
from that rigorous law, But the death of the Saints is 



August 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



429 



rather to be called a sweet sleep than death ; much more 
that of the Queen of Saints, who had been exempt from all 
sin. It is a traditionary pious belief, that the body of the 
Blessed Virgin was raised by God soon after her death, 
and taken up to glory, by a singular privilege, before the 
general resurrection of the dead. The Assumption of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest of all the festivals 
which the Church celebrates in her honor. It is the con- 
summation of all the other great mysteries by which her 




life was rendered most wonderful ; it is the birthday of 
her true greatness and glory, and the crowning of all the 
virtues of her whole life, which we admire single in her 
other festivals. 



Reflection.— Whilst we contemplate, in profound senti- 
ments of veneration, astonishment, and praise, the glory 
to which Mary is raised by her triumph on this day, we 
ought, for our own advantage, to consider by what means 
she arrived at this sublime degree of honor and happiness, 
that we may walk in her steps. ]STo other way is open to 



430 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 16. 



us. The same path which conducted her to glory will also 
lead us thither ; we shall be partners in her reward if we 
copy her virtues. 

August 16.— ST. HYACINTH. 

1 ~P^yacinth, the glorious apostle of Poland and Kussia, 
r*-b was born of noble parents in Poland, about the 
year 1185. In 1218, being already Canon of Cracow, he 




accompanied his uncle, the bishop of that place, to Kome. 
There he met St. Dominic, and received the habit of the 
Friar Preachers from the patriarch himself, of whom he 
became a living copy. So wonderful was his progress in 
virtue that within a year Dominic sent him to preach and 
plant the Order in Poland, where he founded two houses. 
His apostolic journeys extended over numerous regions. 
Austria, Bohemia, Livonia, the shores of the Black Sea, 
Tartary, and Northern China on the east, and Sweden and 
Norway to the west, were evangelized by him, and he is 
said to have visited Scotland, Everywhere multitudes 



AUGUST 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



431 



were converted, churches and convents were built ; one 
hundred and twenty thousand pagans and infidels were 
baptized by his hands. He worked numerous miracles, 
and at Cracow raised a dead youth to life. He had in- 
herited from St. Dominic a most filial confidence in the 
Mother of God ; to her he ascribed his success, and to her 
aid he looked for his salvation. When St. Hyacinth was 
at Kiev the Tartars sacked the town, but it was only as he 
finished Mass that the Saint heard of the danger. With- 
out waiting to unvest, he took the ciborium in his hands, 
and was leaving the church. As he passed by an image of 
Mary a voice said: "Hyacinth, my son, why dost thou 
leave me behind ? Take me with thee, and leave me not to 
mine enemies." The statue was of heavy alabaster, but 
when Hyacinth took it in his arms it was light as a reed. 
With the Blessed Sacrament and the image he came to the 
river Dnieper, and walked dry-shod over the surface of the 
waters. On the eve of the Assumption he was warned of 
his coming death. In spite of a wasting fever, he cele- 
brated Mass on the feast, and communicated as a dying 
man. He was anointed at the foot of the altar, and died 
the same day, a.d. 1257. 

Reflection. — St. Hyacinth teaches us to employ every 
effort in the service of God, and to rely for success not on 
our own industry, but on the prayer of His Immaculate 
Mother. 

August 17. — ST. LIBERATUS, Abbot, and Six Monks^ 
Martyrs. 

uneric, the Arian Vandal king in Africa, in the 
seventh year of his reign, published fresh edicts 
against the Catholics, and ordered their monasteries to be 
everywhere demolished. Seven monks, named Liberatus, 
Boniface, Servus, Eusticus, Kogatus, Septimus, and Maxi- 
mus, who lived in a monastery near Capsa, in the province 




432 



LITTLES PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 17. 



of Byzacena, were at that time summoned to Carthage. 
They were first tempted with great promises, but as they 
remained constant in the belief of the Trinity, and of one 
Baptism, they were loaded with irons and thrown into a 
dark dungeon. The faithful, having bribed the guards, 
visited the Saints day and night, to be instructed by them 
and mutually to encourage one another to suffer for the 
faith of Christ. The king, learning this, commanded them 
to be more closely confined, loaded with heavier irons, and 




tortured with a cruelty never heard of till that time. Soon 
after, he condemned them to be put into an old ship and 
burnt at sea, The martyrs walked cheerfully to the shore, 
contemning the insults of the Arians as they passed along. 
Particular endeavors were used by the persecutors to gain 
Maximus, who was very young ; but God, Who makes the 
tongues of children eloquent to praise His name, gave him 
strength to withstand all their efforts, and he boldly told 
them that they should never be able to separate him from 
his holy abbot and brethren, with whom he had borne the 



AUGtJST 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



483 



labors of a penitential life for the sake of everlasting 
glory. An old vessel was filled with dry sticks, and the 
seven martyrs were put on board and bound on the wood ; 
and fire was put to it several times, but it went out imme- 
diately, and all endeavors to kindle it were in vain. The 
tyrant, in rage and confusion, gave orders that the 
martyrs' brains should be dashed out with oars, which was 
done, and their bodies cast into the sea, which threw them 
all on the shore. The Catholics interred them honorably 
in the monastery of Bigua, near the Church of St. Cele- 
rinus. They suffered in the year 483. 

Reflection. — " Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or 
a thief, or a railer, or a coveter of other men's things ; 
but if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him 
glorify God in that name." 

August 18. — ST. HELENA, Empress; ST. AGAPETUS, 
Martyr. 

It was the pious boast of the city of Colchester, Eng- 
land, for many ages, that St. Helena was born 
within its walls ; and though this honor has been disputed, 
it is certain that she was a British princess. She em- 
braced Christianity late in life ; but her incomparable faith 
and piety greatly influenced her son Constantine, the first 
Christian emperor, and served to kindle a holy zeal in the 
hearts of the Koman people. Forgetful of her high dignity, 
she delighted to assist at the Divine Office amid the poor ; 
and by her alms-deeds showed herself a mother to the 
indigent and distressed. In her eightieth year she made 
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, with the ardent desire of dis- 
covering the cross on which our blessed Redeemer suffered. 
After many labors, three crosses were found on Mount 
Calvary, together with the nails and the inscription re- 
corded by the Evangelists. It still remained to identify 
the true cross of Our Lord. By the advice of the bishop, 



484 



little: pictorial 



[august l£. 



Macarius, the three were applied successively to a woman 
afflicted with an incurable disease, and no sooner had the 
third touched her than she arose, perfectly healed. The 
pious empress, transported with joy, built a most glorious 
church on Mount Calvary to receive the precious relic, 
sending portions of it to Kome and Constantinople, where 
they were solemnly exposed to the adoration of the faithful. 
In the year 312 Constantine found himself attacked by 




Maxentius with vastly superior forces, and the very exist- 
ence of his empire threatened. In this crisis he bethought 
him of the crucified Christian God Whom his mother 
Helena worshipped, and kneeling down, prayed God to 
reveal Himself and give him the victory. Suddenly, at 
noonday, a cross of fire was seen by his army in the calm 
and cloudless sky, and beneath it the words, In hoc signo 
vinces — "Through this sign thou shalt conquer." By 
divine command, Constantine made a standard like the 
cross he had seen, which was borne at the head of his 
troops ; and under this Christian ensign they marched 



AUGUST 19.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



435 



against the enemy, and obtained a complete victory. 
Shortly after, Helena herself returned to Eome, where she 
expired, a.d. 328. 

St. Agapetus suffered in his youth a cruel martyrdom 
at Praeneste, now called Palestrina, twenty-four miles from 
Eome, under Aurelian, about the year 275. His name is 
famous in the ancient calendars of the Church of Rome. 
Two churches in Palestrina and others in other places are 
dedicated to God under his name. 

Reflection.— St. Helena thought it the glory of her life 
to find the cross of Christ, and to raise a temple in its 
honor. How many Christians in these days are ashamed 
to make this life-giving sign, and to confess themselves the 
followers of the Crucified ! 

August 19.— ST. LOUIS, Bishop. 

>^his Saint was little nephew to St. Louis, King of 
France, and nephew, by his mother, to St. Elizabeth 
of Hungary. He was born at Brignoles, in Provence, in 
1274. He was a Saint from the cradle, and from his child- 
hood made it his earnest study to do nothing which was 
not directed to the divine service, and with a view only to 
eternity. Even his recreations he referred to this end, 
and chose only such as were serious and seemed barely 
necessary for the exercise of the body and preserving the 
vigor of the mind. His walks usually led him to some 
church or religious house. It was his chief delight to hear 
the servants of God discourse of mortification or the most 
perfect practices of piety. His modesty and recollection 
in the church inspired with devotion all who saw him. 
"When he was only seven years old his mother found him 
often lying in the night on a mat which was spread on the 
floor near his bed, which he did out of an early spirit of 
penance. In 1284 our Saint's father, Charles II., then 
Prince of Salerno, was taken prisoner in a sea-fight by the 



436 



LITTLE PICTOEIAL 



[ AUGUST 19. 



King of Arragon, and was only released on condition that 
he sent into Arragon, as hostages, fifty gentlemen and 
three of his sons, one of whom was our Saint. Louis was 
set at liberty in 1294, by a treaty concluded between the 
King of Naples, his father, and James II., King of Arragon, 
one condition of which was the marriage of his sister 
Blanche with the King of Arragon. Both courts had at 
the same time extremely at heart the project of a double 
marriage, and that the princess of Majorca, sister to King 




James of Arragon, should be married to Louis, but the 
Saint's resolution of dedicating himself to God was in- 
flexible, and he resigned his right to the crown of Naples, 
which he begged his father to confer on his next brother, 
Robert. The opposition of his family obliged the supe- 
riors of the Friar Minors to refuse for some time to admit 
him into their body, w T herefore he took holy orders at 
Naples. The pious Pope St. Celestine had nominated him 
Archbishop of Lyons in 1294 ; but, as he had not then 
taken the tonsure, he found means to defeat that project. 
Boniface VIII. gave him a dispensation to receive priestly 



AUGUST 20.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 43? 

orders in the twenty-third year of his age, and afterward 
sent him a like dispensation for the episcopal character, 
together with his nomination to the archbishopric of Tou- 
louse, and a severe injunction, in virtue of holy obedience, 
to accept the same. However, he first made his religious 
profession among the Friar Minors on Christmas eve, 1296, 
and received the episcopal consecration in the beginning of 
the February following. He travelled to his bishopric as 
a poor religious, but was received at Toulouse with the 
veneration due to a Saint and the magnificence that be- 
came a prince. His modesty, mildness, and devotion in- 
spired a love of piety in all who beheld him. It was his 
first care to provide for the relief of the indigent, and his 
first visits were made to the hospitals and the poor. In 
his apostolical labors, he abated nothing of his austerities, 
said Mass every day, and preached frequently. Being 
obliged to go into Provence for certain very urgent eccle- 
siastical affairs, he fell sick at the castle of Brignoles. 
Finding his end draw near, he received the Viaticum on 
his knees, melting in tears, and in his last moments ceased 
not to repeat the Hail Mary. He died on the 19th of 
August, 1297, being only twenty- three years and six months 
old. 

August 20.— ST. BERNARD. 

Bernard was born at the castle of Fontaines, in Bur- 
gundy. The grace of his person and the vigor of 
his intellect filled his parents with the highest hopes, and 
the world lay bright and smiling before him when he re- 
nounced it forever and joined the monks of Citeaux. All 
his brothers followed Bernard to Citeaux except Nivard, 
the youngest, who was left to be the stay of his father in 
his old age. u You will now be heir of everything," said 
they to him, as they departed. u Yes," said the boy; 
" you leave me earth, and keep heaven for yourselves ; do 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 34 



you call that fair ? " And he too left the world. At 
length their aged father came to exchange wealth and 
honor for the poverty of a monk of Clair vaux. One only 
sister remained behind ; she was married, and loved the 
world and its pleasures. Magnificently dressed, she visited 
Bernard ; he refused to see her, and only at last consented 
to do so, not as her brother, but as the minister of Christ. 
The words he then spoke moved her so much that, two 
years later, she retired to a convent with her husband's 




consent, and died in the reputation of sanctity. Bernard's 
holy example attracted so many novices that other monas- 
teries were erected, and our Saint was appointed abbot of 
that of Clairvaux. Unsparing with himself, he at first 
expected too much of his brethren, who were disheartened 
at his severity ; but soon perceiving his error, he led them 
forward, by the sweetness of his correction and the mild- 
ness of his rule, to wonderful perfection. In spite of his 
desire to lie hid, the fame of his sanctity spread far and 
wide, and many churches asked for him as their Bishop. 
Through the help of Pope Eugenius III., his former sub- 



AUGUST 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



439 



ject, he escaped this dignity ; yet his retirement was con- 
tinually invaded : the poor and the weak sought his pro- 
tection ; bishops, kings, and popes applied to him for 
advice ; and at length Eugenius himself charged him to 
preach the crusade. By his fervor, eloquence, and mira- 
cles Bernard kindled the enthusiasm of Christendom, and 
two splendid armies were despatched against the infidel. 
Their defeat was only due, said the Saint, to their own sins. 
Bernard died a.d. 1153. His most precious writings have 
earned for him the titles of the last of the Fathers and a 
Doctor of Holy Church. 

Reflection. — St. Bernard used to say to those who applied 
for admission to the monastery, u If you desire to enter 
here, leave at the threshold the body you have brought 
with you from the world ; here there is room only for your 
soul." Let us constantly ask ourselves St. Bernard's daily 
question, " To what end didst thou come hither?" 

August 21.— ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL. 

T the age of sixteen, Jane Frances de Fremyot, 
already a motherless child, was placed under the 
care of a worldly-minded governess. In this crisis she 
offered herself to the Mother of God, and secured Mary's 
protection for life. When a Protestant sought her hand, 
she steadily refused to marry "an enemy of God and His 
Church," and shortly afterwards, as the loving and beloved 
wife of the Baron de Chantal, made her house the pattern of 
a Christian home. But God had marked her for something 
higher than domestic sanctity. Two children and a dearly 
beloved sister died, and, in the full tide of prosperity, her 
husband's life was taken by the innocent hand of a friend. 
For seven years the sorrows of her widowhood were in- 
creased by ill-usage from servants and inferiors, and the 
cruel importunities of friends, who urged her to marry 
again. Harassed almost to despair by their entreaties, she 




440 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 21. 



branded on her heart the name of Jesus, and in the* end 
left her beloved home and children to live* for God alone. 
It was on the 19th of March, 1609, that Madame de Chan- 
tal bade farewell to her family and relations. Pale, and 
with tears in her eyes, she passed round, the* large room, 
sweetly and humbly taking leave of each. Her son, a boy 
of fifteen, used every entreaty, every endearment, to in- 
duce his mother not to leave them, and at last passionately 
flung himself across the door of the room. In an agony of 




distress, she passed on over the body of her son to the 
embrace of her aged and disconsolate father. The anguish 
of that parting reached its height when, kneeling at the 
feet of the venerable old man, she sought and obtained his 
last blessing, promising to repay in her new home his sac- 
rifice by her prayers. Well might St. Francis call her 
" the valiant woman." She was to found with St. Francis 
de Sales a great Order. Sickness, opposition, want, beset 
her, and the death of children, friends, and of St. Francis 
himself followed, while eighty-seven houses of the Visita- 



AUGUST 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



441 



tion rose under her hand. Nine long years of interior 
desolation completed the work of God's grace ; and in her 
seventieth year St. Yincent of Paul saw, at the moment 
of her death, her soul ascend, as a ball of fire, to heaven. 

Reflection. — Profit by the successive trials of life to gain 
the strength and courage of St. Jane Prances, and they 
will become stepping-stones from earth to heaven. 

August 22.— ST. SYMPHORIAN, Martyr. 

< "7"T* bout the year 180 there was a great procession of 



the heathen goddess Ceres, at Autun, in France. 
Amongst the crowd was one who refused to pay the ordi- 
nary marks of worship. He was therefore dragged before 
the magistrate and accused of sacrilege and sedition. 
When asked his name and condition, he replied, " My name 
is Symphorian ; I am a Christian." He came of a noble 
and Christian family. He was still young, and so innocent 
that he was said to converse with the holy angels. The 
Christians of Autun were few and little known, and the 
judge could not believe that the youth was serious in his 
purpose. He caused the laws enforcing heathen worship 
to be read, and looked for a speedy compliance. Sym- 
phorian replied that he must obey the laws of the King of 
kings. " Give me a hammer," he said, "and. I will break 
your idol in pieces." He was scourged and thrown into a 
dungeon. Some days later this son of light came forth from 
the darkness of his prison, haggard and worn, but full of 
joy. He despised the riches and honors offered to him as he 
had despised torments. He died by the sword, and went to 
the court of the heavenly King. The mother of St. Sym- 
phorian stood on the city walls and saw her son led out to 
die. She knew the honors he had refused and the dishonor 
of his death, but she esteemed the reproach of Christ better 
than all the riches of Egypt, and she cried out to him, " My 
son, my son, keep the living God in your heart ; look up 




442 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 23. 



to Him Who reigns in heaven." Thus she shared in the 
glory of his passion, and her name lives with his in the 
records of the Church. Little more than a century later 




the Eoman Empire bowed before the faith of Christ. 
Many miracles spread the glory of St. Symphorian, and 
of Christ the King of Saints. 

Reflection. — The Catholic religion teaches us to be sub- 
ject to every rightful authority. But no earthly authority 
has any right against Christ and His Church. If we are 
accused of sedition or disobedience because we are faithful 
to our religion, then we must choose as St. Symphorian 
chose, and obey God rather than man. 

August 23.— ST. PHILIP BENIZI. 

T. Philip Benizi was born in Florence, on the Feast 
of the Assumption, 1233. That same day the 
Order of Servites was founded by the Mother of God. As 
an infant at the breast, Philip broke out into speech at the 
sight of these new religious, and begged his mother to 




AUGUST 23. j 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



44B 



give them alms. Amidst all the temptations of his youth, 
he longed to become himself a servant of Mary, and it was 
only the fear of his own nn worthiness which made him 
yield to his father's wish and begin to practise medicine. 
After long and weary waiting, his doubts were solved by 
Our Lady herself, who in a vision bade him enter her 
Order. Still Philip dared only offer himself as a lay 
brother, and in this humble state he strove to do penance 
for his sins. In spite of his reluctance, he was promoted 
to the post of master of novices ; and as his rare abilities 
were daily discovered, he was bidden to prepare for the 
priesthood. Thenceforth honors were heaped upon him ; 
he became general of the Order, and only escaped by flight 
elevation to the Papal throne. His preaching restored 
peace to Italy, which was wasted by civil wars ; and at the 
Council of Lyons, he spoke to the assembled prelates with 
the gift of tongues. Amid all these favors Philip lived in 




extreme penitence, constantly examining his soul before 
the judgment-seat of God, and condemning himself as only 
fit for hell. St. Philip, though he was free from the stain 



444 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL 



[AUGUST 24. 



of mortal sin, was never weary of beseeching God's mercy. 
From the time he was ten years old he said daily the 
Penitential Psalms. On his death-bed he kept reciting the 
verses of the Miserere, with his cheeks streaming with 
tears ; and during his agony he went through a terrible 
contest to overcome the fear of damnation. But a few 
minutes before he died, all his doubts disappeared and 
were succeeded by a holy trust. He uttered the responses 
in a low but audible voice ; and when at last the Mother 
of God appeared before him, he lifted up his arms with joy 
and breathed a gentle sigh, as if placing his soul in her 
hand. He died on the Octave of the Assumption, 1285. 

Reflection. — Endeavor so to act as you would wish to 
have acted when you stand before your Judge. This is 
the rule of the Saints, and the only safe rule for all. 

August 24. — ST. BARTHOLOMEW, Apostle. 

OTt. Bartholomew was one of the twelve who were 



called to the apostolate by our blessed Lord Him- 
self. Several learned interpreters of the Holy Scripture 
take this apostle to have been the same as Nathaniel, a 
native of Cana, in Galilee, a doctor in the Jewish law, and 
one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, to whom he was 
conducted by St. Philip, and whose innocence and sim- 
plicity of heart deserved to be celebrated with the highest 
eulogium by the divine mouth of Our Kedeemer. He is 
mentioned among the disciples who were met together in 
prayer after Christ's ascension, and he received the Holy 
Ghost with the rest. Being eminently qualified by the 
divine grace to discharge the functions of an apostle, he 
carried the Gospel through the most barbarous countries of 
the East, penetrating into the remoter Indies. He then 
returned again into the northwest part of Asia, and met 
St. Philip at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. Hence he travelled 
into Lycaonia, where he instructed the people in the Chris- 




AUGUST 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



445 



tian Faith ; but we know not even the names of many of 
the countries in which he preached. St. Bartholomew's 
last removal was into Great Armenia, where, preaching in 
a place obstinately addicted to the worship of idols, he was 
crowned with a glorious martyrdom. The modern Greek 
historians say that he was condemned by the governor of 
Albanopolis to be crucified. Others affirm that he was 
flayed alive, which might well enough consist with his 




crucifixion, this double punishment being in use not only 
in Egypt, but also among the Persians. 

Reflection. — The characteristic virtue of the apostles was 
zeal for the divine glory, the first property of the love of 
God. A soldier is always ready to defend the honor of his 
prince, and a son that of his father ; and can a Christian 
say he loves God who is indifferent to His honor ? 



446 



LITTLE P1CT0MAL 



[august 



August 25 ST. LOUIS, King. 

he mother of Louis told him she would rather see him 
die than commit a mortal sin, and he never forgot 
her words. King of France at the age of twelve, he made 
the defence of God's honor the aim of his life. Before two 
years, he had crushed the Albigensian heretics, and forced 
them by stringent penalties to respect the Catholic faith. 
Amidst the cares of government, he daily recited the Divine 
Office and heard two Masses, and the most glorious 
churches in France are still monuments of his piety. When 
his courtiers remonstrated with Louis for his law that blas- 
phemers should be branded on the lips, he replied, "I 
would willingly have my own lips branded to root out 
blasphemy from my kingdom." The fearless protector of 
the weak and the oppressed, he was chosen to arbitrate in 
all the great feuds of his age, between the Pope and the 
Emperor, between Henry III. and the English barons. In 
1248, to rescue the land which Christ had trod, he gath- 
ered round him the chivalry of France, and embarked for 
the East. There, before the infidel, in victory or defeat, 
on the bed of sickness or a captive in chains, Louis showed 
himself ever the same, — the first, the best, and the bravest 
of Christian knights. When a captive at Damietta, an 
Emir rushed into his tent brandishing a dagger red with 
the blood of the Sultan, and threatened to stab him also 
unless he would make him a knight, as the Emperor Freder- 
ick had Facardin. Louis calmly replied that no unbeliever 
could perform the duties of a Christian knight. In the 
same captivity he was offered his liberty on terms lawful 
in themselves, but enforced by an oath which implied a 
blasphemy, and though the infidels held their swords' 
points at his throat, and threatened a massacre of the 
Christians, Louis inflexibly refused. The death of his 
mother recalled him to France ; but when order was re- 
established he again set forth on a second crusade. In 



AUGUST 26.] 



LIVES of SAIKTS. 



August, 1270, his army landed at Tunis, and, though vic- 
torious over the enemy, succumbed to a malignant fever. 
Louis was one of the victims. He received the Viaticum 




kneeling by his camp-bed, and gave up his life with the 
same joy that he had given all else for the honor of God. 



Reflection. — If we cannot imitate St. Louis in dying for 
the honor of God, we can at least resemble him in resent- 
ing the blasphemies offered against God by the infidel, the 
heretic, and the scoffer. 

August 26.— ST. 2EPHYRINUS, Pope and Martyr. 

t. Zephymnus, a native of Kome, succeeded Victor in 
the pontificate, in the year 202, in which Severus 
raised the fifth most bloody persecution against the Church, 
which continued not for two years only, but until the death 
of that emperor in 211. Under this furious storm this 
holy pastor was the support and comfort of the distressed 
flock of Christ, and he suffered by charity and compassion 
what every confessor underwent. The triumphs of the 




448 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 26. 



martyrs were indeed his joy, but his heart received many 
deep wounds from the fall of apostates and heretics. 
Neither did this latter affliction cease when peace was re- 




stored to the Church. Our Saint had also the affliction to 
see the fall of Tertullian, which seems to have been owing 
partly to his pride. Eusebius tells us that this holy Pope 
exerted his zeal so strenuously against the blasphemies of 
the heretics that they treated him in the most contumelious 
manner ; but it was his glory that they called him the 
principal defender of Christ's divinity. St. Zephyrinus 
filled the pontifical chair seventeen years, dying in 219. 
He was buried in his own cemetery, on the 26th of August. 
He is, in some Martyrologies, styled a martyr, which title 
he might deserve by what he suffered in the persecution, 
though he perhaps did not die by the executioner. 

Reflection. — God has always raised up holy pastors zeal- 
ous to maintain the faith of His Church inviolable, and to 
watch over the purity of its morals and the sanctity of its 
discipline. We enjoy the greatest advantages of the 



AUGUST 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



440 



divine grace through their labors, and we owe to God a 
tribute of perpetual thanksgiving and immortal praise for 
all those mercies which He has afforded His Church on 
earth. 



August 27.— ST. JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS. 

cSt. Joseph Calasanctius was born in Arragon, a.d. 

1556. When only five years old, he led a troop of 
children through the streets to find the devil and kill him. 
He became a priest, and was engaged in various reforms, 
when he heard a voice, saying, " Go to Kome," and had a 
vision of many children who were being taught by him 
and by a company of angels. When he reached the Holy 
City, his heart was moved by the vice and ignorance of the 
children of the poor. Their need mastered his humility. 




and he founded the Order of Clerks Eegular of the Pious 
Schools. He himself provided all that was necessary for 
the education of the children, receiving nothing from them 
in payment, and there were soon about a thousand scholars 



450 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[august 28. 



of every rank under his care. Each lesson began with 
prayer. Every half -hour devotion was renewed by acts of 
faith, hope, and charity, and towards the end of school- 
time the children were instructed in the Christian doctrine. 
They were then escorted home by the masters, so as to 
escape all harm by the way. But enemies arose against 
Joseph from among his own subjects. They accused him to 
the Holy Office, and at the age of eighty-six he was led 
through the streets to prison. At last the Order was re- 
duced to a simple congregation. It was not restored to its 
former privileges till after the Saint's death. Yet he died 
full of hope. " My work," he said, "was done solely for 
the love of God." 

Reflection. — "My children," said the Cure of Ars, "I 
often think that most of the Christians who are lost are 
lost for want of instruction ; they do not know their re- 
ligion well." 

August 28.— ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. 
^^t. Augustine was born in 354, at Tagaste in Africa. 



He was brought up in the Christian faith, but with- 
out receiving baptism. An ambitious school-boy of bril- 
liant talents and violent passions, he early lost both his 
faith and his innocence. He persisted in his irregular life 
until he was thirty-two. Being then at Milan professing 
rhetoric, he tells us that the faith of his childhood had 
regained possession of his intellect, but that he could not 
as yet resolve to break the chains of evil habit. One day, 
however, stung to the heart by the account of some sudden 
conversions, he cried out, "The unlearned rise and storm 
heaven, and we, with all our learning, for lack of heart 
lie wallowing here." He then withdrew into a garden, 
when a long and terrible conflict ensued. Suddenly a 
young fresh voice (he knows not whose) breaks in upon his 
strife with the words, "Take and read;" and he lights 




AUGUST 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



451 



upon the passage beginning, 1 1 Walk honestly as in the 
day." The battle was won. He received baptism, re- 
turned home, and gave all to the poor. At Hippo, where 
he settled, he was consecrated bishop in 395. For thirty- 
five years he was the centre of ecclesiastical life in Africa, 
and the Church's mightiest champion against heresy ; 
whilst his writings have been everywhere accepted as one 




of the principal sources of devotional thought and theo- 
logical speculation. He died in 430. 



Reflection. — Eead the lives of the Saints, and you will 
find that you are gradually creating a society about you to 
which in some measure you will be forced to raise the 
standard of your daily life. 

August 29 THE BEHEADING OF ST. JOHN THE 

BAPTIST. 

Bt. John the Baptist was called by God to be the 
forerunner of His divine Son. In order to preserve 
his innocence spotless, and to improve the extraordinary 



452 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 29. 



graces which he had received, he was directed by the Holy 
Ghost to lead an austere and contemplative life in the 
wilderness, in the continual exercises of devout prayer and 
penance, from his infancy till he was thirty years of age. 
At this age the faithful minister began to discharge his 
mission. Clothed with the weeds of penance, he an- 
nounced to all men the obligation they lay under of wash- 
ing away their iniquities w T ith the tears of sincere com- 




punction ; and proclaimed the Messias, Who was then 
coming to make His appearance among them. He was 
received by the people as the true herald of the Most High 
God, and his voice was, as it were, a trumpet sounding 
from heaven to summon all men to avert the divine judg- 
ments, and to prepare themselves to reap the benefit of 
the mercy that was offered them. The tetrarch Herod 
Antipas having, in defiance of all laws divine and human, 
married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, who was 
yet living, St. John the Baptist boldly reprehended the 
tetrarch and his accomplice for so. scandalous an incest 



AUGUST 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



453 



and adultery, and Herod, urged on by lust and anger, cast 
the Saint into prison. About a year after St. John had 
been made a prisoner, Herod gave a splendid entertain- 
ment to the nobility of Galilee. Salome, a daughter of 
Herodias by her lawful husband, pleased Herod by her 
dancing, insomuch that he promised her to grant whatever 
she asked. On this, Salome consulted with her mother 
what to ask. Herodias instructed her daughter to demand 
the death of John the Baptist, and persuaded the young 
damsel to make it part of her petition that the head of the 
prisoner should be forthwith brought to her in a dish. This 
strange request startled the tyrant himself ; he assented, 
however, and sent a soldier of his guard to behead the 
Saint in prison, with an order to bring his head in a 
charger and present it to Salome, who delivered it to her 
mother. St. Jerome relates that the furious Herodias 
made it her inhuman pastime to prick the sacred tongue 
with a bodkin. Thus died the great forerunner of* our 
blessed Saviour, about two years and three months after 
his entrance upon his public ministry, about a year before 
the death of our blessed Redeemer. 

Reflection. — All the high graces with which St. John was 
favored sprang from his humility ; in this all his other 
virtues were founded. If we desire to form ourselves upon 
so great a model, we must, above all things, labor to lay 
the same deep foundation. 

August 30 ST. ROSE OF LIMA. 

his lovely flower of sanctity, the first canonized Saint 
of the New World, was born at Lima in 1586. She 
was christened Isabel, but the beauty of her infant face 
earned for her the title of Eose, which she ever after bore. 
As a child, while still in the cradle, her silence under a 
painful surgical operation proved the thirst for suffering 
already consuming her heart. At an early age she took 



454 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 30. 



service to support her impoverished parents, and worked 
for them day and night. In spite of hardships and aus- 
terities her beauty ripened with increasing age, and she 




was much and openly admired. From fear of vanity she 
cut off her hair, blistered her face with pepper and her 
hands with lime. For further security she enrolled her- 
self in the Third Order of St. Dominic, took St. Catherine 
of Siena as her model, and redoubled her penance. Her 
cell was a garden hut, her couch a box of broken tiles. 
Under her habit Kose wore a hair-shirt studded with iron 
nails, while, concealed by her veil, a silver crown armed 
with ninety points encircled her head. More than once, 
when she shuddered at the prospect of a night of torture, 
a voice said, "My cross was yet more painful." The 
Blessed Sacrament seemed almost her only food. Her love 
for it was intense. When the Dutch fleet prepared to 
attack the town, Rose took her place before- the tabernacle, 
and wept that she was not worthy to die in its defence. 
All her sufferings were offered for the conversion of sin- 



AUGUST 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



455 



ners, and the thought of the multitudes in hell was ever 
before her soul. She died a.d. 1617, at the age of thirty- 
one. 

Reflection. — Rose, pure as driven snow, was filled with 
deepest contrition and humility, and did constant and 
terrible penance. Our sins are continual, our repentance 
passing, our contrition slight, our penance nothing. How 
will it fare with us ? 

ST. FIAKER, Anchorite. 

^^T. Fiaker was nobly born in Ireland, and had his 
education under the care of a bishop of eminent 
sanctity who was, according to some, Conan, Bishop of 
Soder or the Western Islands. Looking upon all worldly 
advantages as dross, he left his country and friends in the 




flower of his age, and with certain pious companions sailed 
over to France, in quest of some solitude in which he 
might devote himself to God, unknown to the rest of the 
world. Divine Providence conducted him to St. Faro, who 



456 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 31. 



was the Bishop of Meaux, and eminent for sanctity. When 
St. Fiaker addressed himself to him, the prelate, charmed 
with the marks of extraordinary virtue and abilities which 
he discovered in this stranger, gave him a solitary dwelling 
in a forest called Breuil, which was his own patrimony, 
two leagues from Meaux. In this place the holy anchorite 
cleared the ground of trees and briers, made himself a cell, 
with a small garden, and built an oratory in honor of the 
Blessed Virgin, in which he spent great part of the days 
and nights in devout prayer. He tilled his garden, and 
labored with his own hands for his subsistence. The life 
he led was most austere, and only necessity or charity ever 
interrupted his exercises of prayer and heavenly contem- 
plation. Many resorted to him for advice, and the poor 
for relief. But, following an inviolable rule among the 
Irish monks, he never suffered any woman to enter the 
enclosure of his hermitage. St. Chillen, or Kilian, an 
Irishman of high birth, on his return from Rome, visited 
St. Fiaker, who was his kinsman, and having passed some 
time under his discipline, was directed by his advice, with 
the authority of the bishops, to preach in that and the 
neighboring dioceses. This commission he executed with 
admirable sanctity and fruit. St. Fiaker died about the 
year 670, on the 30th of August. 

Reflection. — Ye who love indolence, ponder well these 
words of St. Paul : "If any man will not work, neither let 
him eat." 

August 31. — ST. RAYMUND NONNATUS. 

Of T. Raymund ISTonnatus was born in Catalonia, in the 



year 1204, and was descended of a gentleman's 
family of a small fortune. In his childhood he seemed to 
find pleasure only in his devotions and serious duties. His 
father, perceiving in him an inclination to a religious state, 
took him from school, and sent him to take care of a farm 




AUGUST 31.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



457 



which he had in the country. Kaymund readily obeyed, 
and, in order to enjoy the opportunity of holy solitude, 
kept the sheep himself, and spent his time in the moun- 
tains and forests in holy meditation and prayer. Some 
time after, he joined the new Order of Our Lady of Mercy 
for the redemption of captives, and was admitted to his 
profession at Barcelona by the holy founder, St. Peter 
Nolasco. Within two or three years after his profession, 
he was sent into Barbary with a considerable sum of money, 




where he purchased, at Algiers, the liberty of a great num- 
ber of slaves. When all this treasure was exhausted, he 
gave himself up as a hostage for the ransom of certain 
others. This magnanimous sacrifice served only to ex- 
asperate the Mohammedans, who treated him with uncom- 
mon barbarity, till, fearing lest if he died in their hands 
they should lose the ransom which was to be paid for the 
slaves for whom he remained a hostage, they gave orders 
that he should be treated with more humanity. Hereupon 
he was permitted to go abroad about the streets, whic^i 



458 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[AUGUST 31. 



liberty he made use of to comfort and encourage the Chris- 
tians in their chains, and he converted and baptized some 
Mohammedans. For this the governor condemned him to 
be put to death by thrusting a stake into the body, but his 
punishment was commuted, and he underwent a cruel bas- 
tinado. This torment did not daunt his courage. So long 
as he saw souls in danger of perishing eternally, he thought 
he had yet done nothing. St. Kaymund had no more 
money to employ in releasing poor captives, and to speak 
to a Mohammedan upon the subject of religion was death. 
He could, however, still exert his endeavors, with hopes of 
some success, or of dying a martyr of charity. He there- 
fore resumed his former method of instructing and exhort- 
ing both the Christians and the infidels. The governor, 
who was enraged, ordered our Saint to be barbarously 
tortured and imprisoned till his ransom was brought by 
some religious men of his Order, who were sent with it by 
St. Peter. Upon his return to Spain, he was nominated 
cardinal by Pope Gregory IX., and the Pope, being desir- 
ous to have so holy a man about his person, called him to 
Eome. The Saint obeyed, but went no further than Car- 
dona, when he was seized with a violent fever, which 
proved mortal. He died on the 31st of August, in the year 
1240, the thirty-seventh of his age. 

Reflection. — This Saint gave not only his substance but 
his liberty, and even exposed himself to the most cruel 
torments and death, for the redemption of captives and the 
salvation of souls. But alas ! do not we, merely to gratify 
our prodigality, vanity, or avarice, refuse to give the super- 
fluous part of our possessions to the poor, who for want of 
it are perishing with cold and hunger ? Let us remember 
that " He that giveth to the poor shall not want." 



September i.j lives of tee saints. 



450 



September 1.— ST. GILES, Abbot. 

cS t. Giles, whose name has been held in great venera- 
tion for several ages in France and England, is said 
to have been an Athenian by birth, and of noble extrac- 
tion. His extraordinary piety and learning drew the ad- 
miration of the world upon him in such a manner that it 
was impossible for him to enjoy in his own country that 




obscurity and retirement which was the chief object of his 
desires on earth. He therefore sailed to France, and chose 
a hermitage first in the open deserts near the mouth of 
the Eh one, afterward near the river Gard, and lastly in a 
forest in the diocese of Nismes. He passed many years in 
this close solitude, living on wild herbs or roots and water, 
and conversing only with God. We read in his life that he 
was for some time nourished with the milk of a hind in the 
forest, which, being pursued by hunters, fled for refuge to 
the Saint, who was thus discovered. The reputation of the 
sanctity of this holy hermit was much increased by many 



460 



LITTLE} iPtCTOiltAL [SEPTEMBER 2. 



miracles which he wrought, and which rendered his name 
famous throughout all France. St. Giles was highly es- 
teemed by the French king, but could not be prevailed 
upon to forsake his solitude. He, however, admitted 
several disciples, and settled excellent discipline in the 
monastery of which he was the founder, and which, in 
succeeding ages, became a flourishing abbey of the Bene- 
dictine Order. 

Reflection. — He who accompanies the exercises of con- 
templation and arduous penance with zealous and un- 
daunted endeavors to conduct others to the same glorious 
term with himself, shall be truly great in the kingdom of 
heaven. 

September 2.— ST. STEPHEN, King. 

eysa, fourth Duke of Hungary, was, with his wife, 
converted to the Faith, and saw in a vision the mar- 
tyr St. Stephen, who told him that he should have a son 
who would perfect the work he had begun. This son was 
born a.d. 977, and received the name of Stephen. He was 
most carefully educated, and succeeded his father at an 
early age. He began to root out idolatry, suppressed a 
rebellion of his pagan subjects, and founded monasteries 
and churches all over the land. He sent to Pope Sylvester, 
begging him to appoint bishops to the eleven sees he had 
endowed, and to bestow on him, for the greater success of 
his work, the title of king. The Pope granted his requests, 
and sent him a cross to be borne before him, saying that 
he regarded him as the true apostle of his people. His de- 
votion was fervent. He placed his realms under the pro- 
tection of our blessed Lady, and kept the feast of her 
Assumption with peculiar affection. He gave good laws, 
and saw to their execution. Throughout his life, we are 
told, he had Christ on his lips, Christ in his heart, and 
Christ in all he did. His only wars were wars of defence, 




SEPTEMBER 2.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



461 



and he was always successful. God sent him many and 
sore trials. One by one his children died, but he bore all 
with perfect submission to the will of God. When St. 
Stephen was about to die, he summoned the bishops and 
nobles, and gave them charge concerning the choice of a 
successor. Then he urged them to nurture and cherish the 
Catholic Church, w T hich was still as a tender plant in Hun- 
gary, to follow justice, humility, and charity, to be obe- 




dient to the laws, and to show ever a reverent submission 
to the Holy See. Then, raising his eyes towards heaven, 
he said, 4 4 O Queen of Heaven, august restorer of a pros- 
trate world, to thy care I commend the Holy Church, my 
people, and my realm, and my own departing soul." And 
then, on his favorite feast of the Assumption, a.d. 1038, he 
died in peace. 

Reflection. — "Our duty," says Father Newman, 44 is to 
follow the Yicar of Christ whither he goeth, and never to 
desert him, however we may be tried ; but to defend him 
at all hazards and against all comers, as a son would a 



little PICTORIAL 



[September 8. 



father, and as a wife a husband, knowing that his cause is 
the cause of God." 

September 3.— ST. SERAPHIA, Virgin and Martyr. 

^^t. Seraphia was born at Antioch, of Christian parents, 
who, flying from the persecutions of Adrian, went to 
Italy and settled there. Her parents dying, Seraphia was 
sought in marriage by many, but having resolved to conse- 
crate herself to God alone, she sold all her possessions and 




distributed the proceeds to the poor ; finally she sold her- 
self into a voluntary slavery, and entered the service of a 
Eoman lady named Sabina. The piety of Seraphia, her 
love of work, and her charity soon gained the heart of her 
mistress, who was not long in becoming a Christian. Hav- 
ing been denounced as a follower of Christ, Seraphia was 
condemned to death. She was at first placed on a burning 
pile, but remained uninjured by the flames. Almost de- 
spairing of being able to inflict death upon her, the prefect 
Berillus ordered her to be beheaded, and she thus received 



SEPTEMBER 4/j LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



the crown which she so richly' merited. Her mistress 
gathered her remains, and interred them with every mark 
of respect. Sabina, meeting with a martyr's death, a year 
after, was laid in the same tomb with her faithful servant. 
As early as the fifth century there was a church, at Kome 
placed under their invocation. 

Reflection. — Christian courage bears relation to our faith. 
" If we continue in the faith, grounded, and settled, and 
immovable," all things will be found possible to us. 

September 4.— ST. ROSALIA, Virgin. 

t. Rosalia was daughter of a noble family descended 
from Charlemagne. She was born at Palermo in 
Sicily, and despising in her youth w r orldly vanities, made 
herself an abode in a cave on Mount Pelegrino, three miles 
from Palermo, where she completed the sacrifice of her 
heart to God by austere penance and manual labor, sancti- 
fied by assiduous prayer and the constant union of her soul 
wnth God. She died in 1160. Her body was found buried 
in a grot under the mountain, in the year of the jubilee, 
1625, under Pope Urban VIII., and w T as translated into the 
metropolitan church of Palermo, of which she was chosen 
a patroness. To her patronage that island ascribes the 
ceasing of a grievous pestilence at the same time. 

St. Rose of Viterbo, who is honored on this same day, 
was born in the spring of 1240, a time w r hen Frederick II. 
was oppressing the Church and many w T ere faithless to the 
Holy See. The infant at once seemed filled with grace ; with 
tottering steps she sought Jesus in His tabernacle, she knelt 
before sacred images, she listened to pious talk, retaining 
all she heard, and this w T hen she was scarcely three years 
old. One coarse habit covered her flesh ; fasts and dis- 
ciplines were her delight. To defend the Church's rights 
was her burning wish, and for this she received her mission 
from the Mother of God, who gave her the Franciscan habit, 




464 



LiTTLfi PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER 4. 



with the command to go forth and preach. When hardly 
ten years old, Kose went down to the public square at 
Viterbo, called upon the inhabitants to be faithful to the 




Sovereign Pontiff, and vehemently denounced all his oppo- 
nents. So great was the power of her word, and of the 
miracles which accompanied it, that the Imperial party, in 
fear and anger, drove her from the city, but she continued 
to preach till Innocent IY. was brought back in triumph 
to Eome and the cause of God was won. Then she retired 
to a little cell at Viterbo, and prepared in solitude for her 
end. She died in her eighteenth year. Not long after, 
she appeared in glory to Alexander IV., and bade him 
translate her body. He found it as the vision had said, 
but fragrant and beautiful, as if still in life. 

Reflection. — Eose lived but seventeen years, saved the 
Church's cause, and died a Saint. We have lived, perhaps, 
much longer, and yet with what result ? Every minute 
something can be done for God. Let us be up and doing. 



SEPTEMBER 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



460 



September 5 ST. LAURENCE JUSTINIAN. 

*"| — ' AURENCE from a child longed to be a Saint ; and when 
r* — ■ he was nineteen years of age there was granted to 
him a vision of the Eternal Wisdom. All earthly things 
paled in his eyes before the ineifable beauty of this sight, 
and as it faded away a void was left in his heart which 
none but God could fill. Refusing the offer of a brilliant 
marriage, he fled secretly from his home at Venice, and 
joined the Canons Regular of St. George. One by one he 
crushed every natural instinct which could bar his union 
with his Love. When Laurence first entered religion, a 
nobleman went to dissuade him from the folly of thus 
sacrificing every earthly prospect. The young monk lis- 
tened patiently in turn to his friend's affectionate appeal, 




scorn, and violent abuse. Calmly and kindly lie then re- 
plied. He pointed out the shortness of life, the uncertainty 
of earthly happiness, and the incomparable superiority of 
the prize he sought to any his friend had named. The 



466 



little! t* iCToHiAL 



nobleman could make no answer ; lie felt in truth that 
Laurence was wise, himself the fool. He left the world, 
became a fellow-novice with the Saint, and his holy death 
bore every mark that he too had secured the treasures 
which never fail. As superior and as general, Laurence 
enlarged and strengthened his Order, and as bishop of his 
diocese, in spite of slander and insult, thoroughly reformed 
his see. His zeal led to his being appointed the first patri- 
arch of Venice, but he remained ever in heart and soul 
an humble priest, thirsting for the sight of heaven. At 
length the eternal vision began to dawn. ' ' Are you laying 
a bed of feathers for me ?" he said. " Not so ; my Lord 
was stretched on a hard and painful tree." Laid upon 
the straw, he exclaimed in rapture, u Good Jesus, behold 
I come." He died a.d. 1435, aged seventy-four. 

Reflection. — Ask St. Laurence to vouchsafe you such a 
sense of the sufficiency of God that you too may fly to Him 
and be at rest. 

September 6.— ST. ELEUTHERIUS, Abbot. 

wonderful simplicity and spirit of compunction were 
the distinguishing virtues of this holy man. He was 
chosen abbot of St. Mark's near Spoleto, and favored by 
God with the gift of miracles. A child who was possessed 
by the devil, being delivered by being educated in his mon- 
astery, the abbot said one day : ' ; Since the child is among 
the servants of God, the devil dares not approach him." 
These words seemed to savor of vanity, and thereupon the 
devil again entered and tormented the child. The abbot 
humbly confessed his fault, and fasted and prayed with his 
whole community till the child was again freed from the 
tyranny of the fiend. St. Gregory the Great not being able 
to fast on Easter-eve on account of extreme weakness, en- 
gaged this Saint to go with him to the church of St. An- 
drew's and put up his prayers to God for his health, that 




SEPTEMBER 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



467 



he might join the faithful in that solemn practice of pen- 
ance. Eleutherius prayed with many tears, and the Pope, 
coming out of the church, found his breast suddenly 
strengthened, so that he was enabled to perform the fast 
as he desired. St. Elsutherius raised a dead man to life. 




Kesigning his abbacy, he died in St. Andrew's monastery 
in Kome, about the year 585. 

Reflection.— " Appear not to men to fast, but to thy 
Father Who is in heaven, and «thy Father, Who seeth in 
secret, He will repay thee." 



September 7.— ST. CLOUD, Confessor. 

T. Cloud is the first and most illustrious Saint among 
the princes of the royal family of the first race in 
France. He was son of Chlodomir, King of Orleans, the 
eldest son of St. Clotilda, and was born in 522. He was 
scarce three years old when his father was killed in Bur- 
gundy ; but his grandmother Clotilda brought up him and 
his two brothers at Paris, and loved them extremely. 




468 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER 7. 



Their ambitious uncles divided the kingdom of Orleans 
between them, and stabbed with their own hands two of 
their nephews. Cloud, by a special providence, was saved 




from the massacre, and, renouncing the world, devoted 
himself to the service of God in a monastic state. After a 
time he put himself under the discipline of St. Severinus, a 
holy recluse who lived near Paris, from whose hands he 
received the monastic habit. Wishing to live unknown to 
the world, he withdrew secretly into Provence, but his 
hermitage being made public, he returned to Paris, and 
was received with the greatest joy imaginable. At the 
earnest request of the people, he was ordained priest by 
Eusebius, Bishop of Paris, in 551, and served that Church 
some time in the functions of the sacred ministry. He 
afterward retired to St. Cloud, two leagues below Paris, 
where he built a monastery. Here he assembled many 
pious men, who fled out of the world for fear of losing 
their souls in it. St. Cloud was regarded by them as their 
superior, and he animated them to all virtue both by word 



SEPTEMBER 8.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



469 



and example. He was indefatigable in instructing and ex- 
horting the people of the neighboring country, and piously 
ended his days about the year 560. 

Reflection. — Let us remember that u the just shall live 
for evermore ; they shall receive a kingdom of glory, and a 
crown of beauty at the hand of the Lord." 

September 8.— THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED 
VIRGIN. 

^J^he birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary announced joy 
and the near approach of salvation to the lost 
world. Mary was brought forth in the world not like other 
children of Adam, infected with the loathsome contagion 
of sin, but pure, holy, beautiful, and glorious, adorned 




with all the most precious graces which became her who 
was chosen to be the Mother of God. She appeared indeed 
in the weak state of our mortality ; but in the eyes of 
Heaven she already transcended the highest seraph in 
purity, brightness, and the richest ornaments of grace. If 



470 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[SEPTEMBER 8. 



we celebrate the birthdays of the great ones of this earth, 
how ought we to rejoice in that of the Virgin Mary, pre- 
senting to God the best homage of our praises and thanks- 
giving for the great mercies He has shown in her, and im- 
ploring her mediation with her Son in our behalf ! Christ 
will not reject the supplications of His mother, whom He 
was pleased to obey whilst on earth. Her love, care, and 
tenderness for Him, the title and qualities which she bears, 
the charity and graces with which she is adorned, and the 
crown of glory with which she is honored, must incline Him 
readily to receive her recommendations and petitions. 

THE FESTIVAL, ON THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE 
OCTAVE OF HER NATIVITY, OF THE HOLY 
NAME OF MARY. 



^^his festival was appointed by Pope Innocent XI., that 
on it the faithful may be called upon in a particular 
manner to recommend to God, through the intercession of 




the Blessed Virgin, the necessities of His Church, and to 
return Him thanks for His gracious protection and number- 



SEPTEMBER 9.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



471 



less mercies. "What gave occasion to the institution of this 
feast was a solemn thanksgiving for the relief of Vienna 
when it was besieged by the Turks in 1683. If we desire 
to deprecate the divine anger, justly provoked by our sins, 
with our prayers, we must join the tears of sincere com- 
punction with a perfect conversion of our manners. The 
first grace we should always beg of God is that He will 
bring us to the disposition of condign penance. Our sup- 
plications for the divine mercies, and our thanksgivings for 
benefits received, will only thus be rendered acceptable. 
By no other means can we deserve the blessing of God, or 
be recommended to it by the patronage of His holy mother. 
To the invocation of Jesus it is a pious and wholesome 
practice to join our application to the Blessed Virgin, that, 
through her intercession, we may more easily and more 
abundantly obtain the effects of our petitions. In this 
sense devout souls pronounce, with great affection and con- 
fidence, the holy names of Jesus and Mary. 



September 9. — ST. OMER, Bishop. 

C^t. Omer was born toward the close of the sixth cen- 
tury, in the territory of Constance. His parents, 
who were noble and wealthy, gave great attention to his 
education, but, above all, strove to inspire him with a love 
for virtue. Upon the death of his mother he entered the 
monastery of Luxen, whither he persuaded his father to 
follow him, after having sold his worldly goods and dis- 
tributed the proceeds among the poor. The father and son 
made their religious profession together. The humility, 
obedience, mildness, and devotion, together with the ad- 
mirable purity of manners, which shone forth in every 
action of St. Omer, distinguished him among his saintly 
brethren, and he was soon called from his solitude to take 
charge of the government of the Church in Terouenne. 
The greater part of those living in his diocese were still 



472 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[SEPTEMBER 9. 



pagans, and even the few Christians were, through a 
scarcity of priests, fallen into a sad corruption of manners. 
The great and difficult work of their conversion was re- 
served for St. Omer. The holy bishop applied himself to 
his task with such zeal that in a short time his diocese be- 




came one of the most flourishing in France. In his old 
age St. Omer became blind, but that affliction did not 
lessen his pastoral concern for his flock. He died in the 
odor of sanctity, while on a pastoral visit to Wavre, in 670. 



BLESSED PETER CLAVER. 

^I^eter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit. In Majorca he 
fell in with the holy lay-brother Alphonsus Kodri- 
guez, who, having already learned by revelation the saintly 
career of Peter, became his spiritual guide, foretold to him 
the labors he would undergo in the Indies, and the throne 
he would gain in heaven. Ordained priest in New Granada, 
Peter was sent to Cartagena, the great slave-mart of the 
"West Indies, and there he consecrated himself by vow to 



gEMEMBEB 10.] LIVES Otf tefi SAltfTS. 



the salvation of those ignorant and miserable creatures. 
For more than forty years he labored in this work. He 
called himself " the slave of the slaves." He was their 
apostle, father, physician, and friend. He fed them, 
nursed them with the utmost tenderness in their loathsome 
diseases, often applying his own lips to their hideous sores. 
His cloak, which was the constant covering of the naked, 
though soiled with their filthy ulcers, sent forth a miracu- 
lous perfume. His rest after his great labors was in nights 
of penance and prayer. However tired he might be, when 
news arrived of a fresh slave-ship, Blessed Peter immedi- 
ately revived, his eyes brightened, and he was at once on 
board amongst his dear slaves, bringing them comfort for 
body and soul. A false charge of reiterating Baptism for a 
while stopped his work. He submitted without a murmur 
till the calumny was refuted, and then God so blessed his 
toil that 40,000 negroes were baptized before he went to 
his reward, in 1654. 

Reflection. — When you see any one standing in need of 
your assistance, either for body or soul, do not ask yourself 
why some one else did not help him, but think to yourself 
that you have found a treasure. 

September 10.— ST. NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO. 

Born in answer to the prayer of a holy mother, and 
vowed before his birth to the service of God, Nicho- 
las never lost his baptismal innocence. His austerities 
were conspicuous even in the austere Order — the Hermits 
of St. Augustine — to which he belonged, and to the remon- 
strances which were made by his superiors he only replied, 
^ 1 How can I be said to fast, while every morning at the 
altar I receive my God ? " He conceived an ardent charity 
for the Holy Souls, so near and yet so far from their 
Saviour ; and often after his Mass it was revealed to him 
that the souls for whom he had offered the Holy Sacrifice 



474 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER lO. 



had been admitted to the presence of God. Amidst his 
loving labors for God and man, he was hannted by fear of 
his own sinfulness. " The heavens/ 7 said he, 4 'are not 




pure in the sight of Him Whom I serve ; how then shall I, 
a sinful man, stand before Him?" As he pondered on 
these things, Mary, the Queen of all Saints, appeared be- 
fore him. " Fear not, Nicholas," she said, " all is well 
with you : my Son bears you in His Heart, and I am your 
protection." Then his soul was at rest ; and he heard, we 
are told, the songs which the angels sing in the presence of 
their Lord. He died September 10, 1310. 

Reflection.— Would you die the death of the just ? there 
is only one way to secure the fulfilment of your wish. Live 
the life of the just. For it is impossible that one who has 
been faithful to God in life should make a bad or an un- 
happy end. 



SEPTEMBEll 11.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



475 



September 11.— ST. PAPHNUTIUS, Bishop. 

^^he holy confessor Paphnutius was an Egyptian, and 
V< after having spent several years in the desert, under 
the direction of the great St. Antony, was made bishop in 
Upper Thebais. He was one of those confessors who, under 
the tyrant Maximin Daia, lost their right eye, and were 
afterward sent to work in the mines. Peace being restored 
to the Church, Paphnutius returned to his flock. The 
Arian heresy being broached in Egypt, he was one of the 
most zealous in defending the Catholic faith, and for his 
eminent sanctity and the glorious title of confessor (or one 
who had confessed the Faith before the persecutors and 
under torments) was highly considered in the great Council 
of Nice. Constantine the Great, during the celebration of 




that synod, sometimes conferred privately with him in his 
palace, and never dismissed him without kissing respect- 
fully the place which had once held the eye he had lost for 
the Faith. St. Paphnutius remained always in a close union 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [ SEPTEMBER 1$. 



with St. Athanasius, and accompanied him to the Council 
of Tyre, in 335, where they found much the greater part of 
that assembly to be professed Arians. Seeing Maximus, 
Bishop of Jerusalem, among them, Paphnutius took him by 
the hand, led him out, and told him he could not see that 
any who bore the same marks as he in defence of the Faith 
should be seduced and imposed upon by persons who were 
resolved to oppress the most strenuous assertor of its fun- 
damental article. We have no particular account of the 
death of St. Paphnutius, but his name stands in the Roman 
Martyrology on the 11th of September. 

Reflection. — If to fight for our country be glorious, ' ' it 
is likewise great glory to follow the Lord," saith the Wise 
Man. 

September 12.— ST. GUY OF ANDERLECHT. 

s a child Guy had two loves, the Church and the poor. 
The love of prayer growing more and more, he left 
his poor home at Brussels to seek greater poverty and closer 
union with God. He arrived at Laeken, near Brussels, and 
there showed such devotion before Our Lady's shrine that 
the priest besought him to stay and serve the Church. 
Thenceforth his great joy was to be always in the church, 
sweeping the floor and ceiling, polishing the altars, and 
cleansing the sacred vessels. By day he still found time 
and means to befriend the poor, so that his almsgiving be- 
came famous in all those parts. A merchant of Brussels, 
hearing of the generosity of this poor sacristan, came to 
Laeken, and offered him a share in his business. Guy 
could not bear to leave the church ; but the offer seemed 
providential, and he at last closed with it. Their ship, 
however, was lost on the first voyage, and on returning to 
Laeken Guy found his place filled. The rest of his life 
was one long penance for his inconstancy. About the 
year 1033, finding his end at hand, he returned to Ander- 




SEPTEMBER 18.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 4*5"? 



lecht, in his own country. As he died, a light shone round 
him, and a voice was heard proclaiming his eternal reward. 




Reflection. — Jesus was only nine months in the womb of 
Mary, three hours on the cross, three days in the sepul- 
chre, but He is always in the tabernacle. Does our rever- 
ence before Him bear witness to this most blessed truth ? 



September 13.— ST. EULOGIUS, Patriarch of Alexandria. 

t. Eulogius was a Syrian by birth, and while young 
embraced the monastic state in that country. The 
Eutychian heresy had thrown the Churches of Syria and 
Egypt into much confusion, and a great part of the monks 
of Syria were at that time become remarkable for their 
loose morals and errors against faith. Eulogius learned 
from the fall of others to stand more w T atchfully and firmly 
upon his guard, and was not less distinguished by the 
innocence and sanctity of his manners than by the purity 
of his doctrine. Having, by an enlarged pursuit of learn- 
ing, attained to a great variety of useful knowledge in the 




478 



LITTLE PICTORiAL [SEPTEMBER 13. 



different branches of literature, he set himself to the study 
of divinity in the sacred sources of that science, which are 
the Holy Scriptures, the tradition of the Church as ex- 




plained in its councils, and the approved writings of its 
eminent pastors. In the great dangers and necessities of 
the Church he was drawn out of his solitude, and made 
priest of Antioch by the patriarch St. Anastasius. Upon 
the death of John, the Patriarch of Alexandria, St. Eulo- 
gius was raised to that patriarchal dignity toward the close 
of the year 583. About two years after his promotion our 
Saint was obliged to make a journey to Constantinople, in 
order to concert measures concerning certain affairs of his 
Church. He met at court St. Gregory the Great, and con- 
tracted with him a holy friendship, so that from that time 
they seemed to be one heart and one soul. Among the 
letters of St. Gregory we have several extant which he 
wrote to our Saint. St. Eulogius composed many excellent 
works against different heresies, and died in the year 606. 

Reflection. — We admire the great actions and the glori- 
ous triumph of the Saints ; yet it is not so much in these 



SEPTEMBER 14.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



479 



that their sanctity consisted, as in the constant, habitual 
heroic disposition *of their souls. There is no one who does 
not sometimes do good actions ; but he can never be called 
virtuous who does well only by humor, or by fits and 
starts, not by steady habits. 

September I4.-THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY 
CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

aONSTANTiNE was still wavering between Christianity 
and idolatry when a luminous cross appeared to him 
in the heavens, bearing the inscription, "In this sign shalt 
thou conquer." He became a Christian, and triumphed 
over his enemies, who were at the same time the enemies 
of the Faith. A few years later, his saintly mother having 
found the cross on which Our Saviour suffered, the feast of 




the " Exaltation " was established in the Church; but it 
was only at a later period still, namely, after the Emperor 
Heraclius had achieved three great and wondrous victories 
over Chosroes, King of Persia, who had possessed himself 



480 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[SEPTEMBER 15. 



of the holy and precious relic, that this festival took a more 
general extension, and was invested with a higher character 
of solemnity. The feast of the "Finding" was thereupon 
instituted, in memory of the discovery made by St. Helena; 
and that of the " Exaltation " was reserved to celebrate the 
triumphs of Heraelius. The greatest power of the Catholic 
w r orld was at that time centred in the Empire of the East, 
and was verging toward its ruin, when God put forth His 
hand to save it : the re-establishment of the cross at Jeru- 
salem was the sure pledge thereof. This great event oc- 
curred in 629. 

Reflection. — Herein is found the accomplishment of the 
Saviour's word : " If I be lifted up from the earth, I will 
draw all things to Myself." 

September 15 — ST. CATHERINE OF GENOA. 
^I^voble in birth, rich, and exceedingly beautiful, Cath- 



«-*-£ erine had as a child rejected the solicitations of the 
world, and begged her divine Master for some share in His 
sufferings. At sixteen years of age she found herself 
promised in marriage to a young nobleman of dissolute 
habits, who treated her with such harshness that, after five 
years, wearied out by his cruelty, she somewhat relaxed 
the strictness of her life and entered into the worldly soci- 
ety of Genoa. At length, enlightened by divine grace as 
to the danger of her state, she resolutely broke with the 
world and gave herself up to a life of rigorous penance and 
prayer. The charity with which she devoted herself to the 
service of the hospitals, undertaking the vilest of offices 
with joy, induced her husband to amend his evil ways and 
he died penitent. Her heroic fortitude was sustained by 
the constant thought of the Holy Souls, whose sufferings 
were revealed to her, and whose state she has described in 
a treatise full of heavenly wisdom. A long and grievous 
malady during the last years of her life only served to per- 




SEPTEMBER 16.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



481 



feet her union with God, till, worn out in body and puri- 
fied in soul, she breathed her last on September 14, 1510. 




Reflection. — The constant thought of purgatory will help 
us not only to escape its dreadful pains, but also to avoid 
the least imperfection which hinders our approach to God. 



September 16. — ST. CYPRIAN, Bishop, Martyr. 

aYPRiAN was an African of noble birth but of evil life, 
a pagan, and a teacher of rhetoric. In middle life 
he was converted to Christianity, and shortly after his 
baptism was ordained priest, and made Bishop of Carthage, 
notwithstanding his resistance. When the persecution of 
Decius broke out, he fled from his episcopal city, that he 
might be the better able to minister to the wants of his 
flock, but returned on occasion of a pestilence. Later on 
he was banished, and saw in a vision his future martyr- 
dom. Being recalled from exile, sentence of death was 
pronounced against him, which he received with the words 
" Thanks be to God," His great desire was to die whilst 



482 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL [SEPTEMBER 17. 



in the act of preaching the faith of Christ, and he had the 
consolation of being surrounded at his martyrdom by- 
crowds of his faithful children. He was beheaded on the 




14th September, a.d. 258, and was buried with great solem- 
nity. Even the pagans respected his memory. 

Reflection. — The duty of almsgiving is declared both by 
nature and revelation : by nature, because it flows from 
the principle imprinted within us of doing to others as we 
would they should do to us ; by revelation, in many special 
commands of Scripture, and in the precept of divine charity 
which binds us to love God for His own sake, and our 
neighbor for the sake of God. 

September 17.— ST. LAMBERT, Bishop, Martyr. 

T. Lambert was a native of Maestricht. His father 
intrusted his education to the holy Bishop St. 
Theodard, and on that good man being assassinated, Lam- 
bert was chosen his successor. A revolution breaking out 




September 17.] lives of the saints. 



483 



which overturned the kingdom of Austrasia, our Saint was 
banished from his see on account of his devotion to his 
sovereign. He retired to the monastery of Stavelo, and 
there obeyed the rule as strictly as the youngest novice could 
have done. One instance will suffice to show with how 
perfect a sacrifice of himself he devoted his heart to serve 
God. As he was rising one night in winter to his private 
devotions, he happened to let fall his wooden sandal or 
slipper. The abbot, without asking who had caused the 
noise, gave orders that the offender should go and pray be- 
fore the cross, which stood before the church door. Lam- 
bert, without making any answer, went out as he was, 
barefoot, and covered only with his hair shirt ; and in this 
condition he prayed, kneeling before the cross, where he 
was found some hours after. At the sight of the holy 




bishop the abbot and the monks fell on the ground and 
asked his pardon. "God forgive you,' 1 said he, "for 
thinking you stand in need of pardon for this action. As 
for myself, is it not in cold and nakedness that, according 



484 



Little pictorial [September 18. 



to St. Paul, I am to tame my flesh and to serve God ? " 
While St. Lambert enjoyed the quiet of holy retirement, he 
wept to see the greatest part of the churches of France 
laid waste. In the mean time the political clouds began 
to break away, and Lambert was restored to his see, but 
his zeal in suppressing the many and notorious disorders 
which existed in his diocese led to his assassination on the 
17th of September, 709. 

Reflection. — How noble and heroic is this virtue of forti- 
tude ! how necessary for every Christian, especially for a 
pastor of souls, that neither worldly views nor fears may 
ever in the least warp his integrity or blind his judgment ! 

September 18.— ST. THOMAS OF VILLANOVA. 

^^t. Thomas, the glory of the Spanish Church in the six- 
K-^ teenth century, was born a.d. 1488. A thirst for 
the science of the Saints led him to enter the house of the 




Austin Friars at Salamanca. Charles V. listened to him 
as an oracle, and appointed him Archbishop of Valencia. 



SEPTEMBER 19.] LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



485 



On being led to his throne i:i church, he pushed the silken 
cushions aside, and with tears kissed the ground. His first 
visit was to the prison ; the sum w r ith w T hich the chapter 
presented him for his palace was devoted to the public 
hospital. As a child he had given his meal to the poor, 
and two thirds of his episcopal revenues were now annually 
spent in alms. He daily fed five hundred needy persons, 
brought up himself the orphans of the city, and sheltered 
the neglected foundlings with a mother's care. During his 
eleven years' episcopate not one poor maiden was married 
without an alms from the Saint. Spurred by his example, 
the rich and the selfish became liberal and generous ; and 
when, on the Nativity of Our Lady, a.d. 1555, St. Thomas 
came to die, he was well-nigh the only poor man in his see. 

Reflection. — " Answer me, 0 sinner ! " St. Thomas would 
say, " what can you purchase with your money better or 
more necessary than the redemption of your sins ? " 

September 19. — ST. JANUARIUS, Martyr. 

any centuries ago, St. Januarius died for the Faith 
in the persecution of Diocletian, and to this day 
God confirms the faith of His Church, and works a con- 
tinual miracle, through the blood which Januarius shed for 
Him. The Saint was Bishop of Beneventum, and on one 
occasion he travelled to Misenum in order to visit a deacon 
named Sosius. During this visit Januarius saw the head 
of Sosius, who was singing the gospel in the church, girt 
with flames, and took this for a sign that ere long Sosius 
would wear the crown of martyrdom. So it proved. 
Shortly after Sosius was arrested, and thrown into prison. 
There St. Januarius visited and encouraged him, till the 
bishop also was arrested in turn. Soon the number of the 
confessors was swollen by some of the neighboring clergy. 
They were exposed to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. 
The beasts, however, did them no harm ; and at last the 




486 



LITTLE $ICT OMAL [ SEPTEMBER 20, 



Governor of Campania ordered the Saints to be beheaded. 
Little did the heathen governor think that he was the in- 
strument in God's hand of ushering in the long succession 
of miracles which attest the faith of Januarius. The relics 




of St. Januarius rest in the cathedral of Naples, and it is 
there that the liquefaction of his blood occurs. The blood 
is congealed in two glass vials, but when it is brought near 
the martyr's head it melts and flows like the blood of a 
living man. 



Reflection. — Thank God Who has given you superabun- 
dant motives for your faith ; and pray for the spirit of the 
first Christians, the spirit which exults and rejoices in belief 

September 20.— STS. EUSTACHIUS and Companions, 
Martyrs. 

ustachius, called Placidus before his conversion, was 
a distinguished officer of the Koman army under 
the Emperor Trajan. One day, whilst hunting a deer, he 
suddenly perceived between the horns of the animal the 




SEPTEMBER 20. j LIVES OF THE SAIJSTS. 



image of our crucified Saviour. Responsive to what he 
considered a voice from heaven, he lost not a moment in 
becoming a Christian. In a short time he lost all his pos- 
sessions and his position, and his wife and children were 
taken from him. Eeduced to the most abject poverty, he 
took service with a rich land-owner to tend his fields. In 
the mean time the empire suffered greatly from the ravages 
of barbarians. Trajan sought out our Saint, and placed 
him in command of the troops sent against the enemy. 
During this campaign he found his wife and children, whom 
he despaired of ever seeing again. Returning home victo- 
rious, he was received in triumph and loaded with honors ; 
but the emperor having commanded him to sacrifice to the 
false gods, he refused. Infuriated at this, Trajan ordered 




Eustachius with his wife and children to be exposed to two 
starved lions ; but instead of harming these faithful ser- 
vants of God, the beasts merely frisked and frolicked about 
them. The emperor, grown more furious at this, caused 
the martyrs to be shut up inside a brazen bull, under which 



488 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER 21. 



a fire was kindled, and in this horrible manner they were 
roasted to death. 

Reflection. — It is not enough to encounter dangers with 
resolution ; we must with equal courage and constancy 
vanquish pleasure and the softer passions, or we possess 
not the virtue of true fortitude. 

September 21.— ST. MATTHEW, Apostle. 

One day, as Our Lord was walking by the Sea of Galilee, 
He saw, sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew 
the publican, whose business it was to collect the taxes 




from the people for their Roman masters. Jesus said to 
him, "Follow Me; 11 and leaving all, Matthew arose and 
followed Him. Now the publicans were abhorred by the 
Jews as enemies of their country, outcasts, and notorious 
sinners, who enriched themselves by extortion and fraud. 
No Pharisee would sit with one at table. Our Saviour 
alone had compassion for them. So St. Matthew made a 
great feast, to which he invite^ T ^ns and His disciples, 



SEPTEMBEK 22.] LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



489 



with a number of these publicans, who henceforth began 
eagerly to listen to Him. It was then, in answer to the 
murmurs of the Pharisees, that He said, ' ' They that are 
in health need not the physician. I have not come to call 
the just, but sinners to penance." After the Ascension, 
St. Matthew remained some years in Judaea, and there 
wrote his gospel, to teach his countrymen that Jesus was 
their true Lord and King, foretold by the prophets. St. 
Matthew afterward preached the Faith far and wide, and is 
said to have finished his course in Parthia. 

Reflection.— Obey all inspirations of Our Lord as 
promptly as St. Matthew, who, at a single word, "laid 
down," says St. Bridget, "the heavy burden of the world 
to put on the light and sweet yoke of Christ." 

September 22. -THE THEBAN LEGION. 

he Theban legion numbered more than six thousand 
men. They marched from the East into Gaul, and 
proved their loyalty at once to their Emperor and to their 
God. They were encamped near the Lake of Geneva, under 
the Emperor Maximian, when they got orders to turn their 
swords against the Christian population, and refused to 
obey. In his fury Maximian ordered them to be decimated. 
The order was executed once and again, but they endured 
this without a murmur or an effort to defend themselves. 
St. Maurice, the chief captain in this legion of martyrs, 
encouraged the rest to persevere and follow their comrades 
to heaven. "Know, 0 Emperor," he said, "that we are 
your soldiers, but we are servants also of the true God. 
In all things lawful we will most readily obey, but we can- 
not stain our hands in this innocent blood. We have seen 
our comrades slain, and we rejoice at their honor. We 
have arms, but we resist not, for we had rather die with- 
out shame than live by sin." As the massacre becran, these 
generous soldiers flung down their ; nd t heir necks 



490 



Little pictorial [September 23. 



to the sword, and suffered themselves to be butchered in 
silence. 

Reflection. — Thank God for every slight and injury you 
have to bear. An injury borne in meekness and silence is 




a true victory. It is the proof that we are good soldiers of 
Jesus Christ, disciples of that heavenly wisdom which is 
first pure, then peaceable. 



September 23.— ST. THECLA, Virgin, Martyr. 

t. Thecla is one of the most ancient, as she is one of 
the most illustrious, Saints in the calendar of the 
Church. It was at Iconium that St. Paul met St. Thecla, 
and kindled the love of virginity in her heart. She had 
been promised in marriage to a young man who was rich 
and generous. But at the Apostle's w T ords she died to the 
thought of earthly espousals ; she forgot her beauty ; she 
was deaf to her parents' threats, and at the first opportunity 
she fled from a luxurious home and followed St. Paul. The 




SEPTEMBER 23.] LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



491 



rage of her parents and of her intended spouse followed 
hard upon her ; and the Roman power did its worst against 
the virgin whom Christ had chosen for His own. She was 
stripped and placed in the public theatre ; but her inno- 
cence shrouded her like a garment. Then the lions were 
let loose against her ; they fell crouching at her feet, and 
licked them as if in veneration. Even fire could not harm 
her. Torment after torment was inflicted upon her without 
effect, till at last her Spouse spoke the word and called her 
to Himself, with the double crown of virginity and martyr- 
dom on her head. 



Reflection. — It is purity in soul and body which will 
make you strong in pain, in temptation, and in the hour 




of death. Imitate the purity of this glorious virgin, and 
take her for your special patroness in your last agony. 



492 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER 24. 



September 24 — THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY OF 
MERCY- 
IT^ t. Peter, of the noble family of Nolasco, was born in 
Languedoc, about 1189. At the age of twenty-five 
he took a vow of chastity, and made over his vast estates 
to the Church. Some time after, he conceived the idea of 
establishing an order for the redemption of captives. The 
divine will was soon manifested. The Blessed Virgin ap- 




peared on the same night to Peter, to Kaymund of Penna- 
fort, his confessor, and to James, King of Arragon, his 
ward, and bade them prosecute without fear their holy 
designs. After great opposition, the Order was solemnly 
established, and approved by Gregory IX., under the name 
of Our Lady of Mercy. By the grace of God, and under 
the protection of His Virgin Mother, the Order spread rap- 
idly, its growth being increased by the charity and piety of 
its members, who devoted themselves not only to collecting 
alms for the ransom of the Christians, but even gave them- 
selves up to voluntary slavery to aid the good work. It is 



SEPTEMBER 25 ] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



493 



to return thanks to G-ocl and the Blessed Virgin that a feast 
was instituted which was observed in the Order of Mercy, 
then in Spain and France, and at last extended to the 
whole Church by Innocent XII., and the 24th September 
named as the day on which it is to be observed. 

Reflection. — St. Peter Nolasco and his knights were lay- 
men, not priests, and yet they considered the salvation of 
their neighbor intrusted to them. We can each of us by 
counsel, by prayer, but above all by holy example, assist 
the salvation of our brethren, and thus secure our own. 

September 25.— ST. FIRMIN, Bishop, Martyr. — ST. FIN- 
BARR, Bishop. 

T. Firmin was a native of Pampelone in Navarre, 
initiated in the Christian faith by Honestus, a dis- 
ciple of St. Saturninus of Toulouse, and consecrated bishop 
by St. Honoratus, successor to St. Saturninus, in order to 
preach the Gospel in the remoter parts of Gaul. He 
preached the Faith in the countries of Agen, Anjou, and 
Beauvais, and being arrived at Amiens, there chose his 
residence, and founded there a numerous church of faith- 
ful disciples. He received the crown of martyrdom in that 
city, whether under the prefect Rictius Varus, or in some 
other persecution from Decius, in 250, to Diocletian, in 303, 
is uncertain. 

St. Finbarr, who lived in the sixth century, was a native 
of Connaught, and instituted a monastery or school at 
Lough Eire, to which such numbers of disciples flocked, as 
changed, as it were, a desert into a large city. This was 
the origin of the city of Cork, which was built chiefly upon 
stakes, in marshy little islands formed by the river Lea. 
The right name of our Saint, under which he was baptized, 
was Lochan ; the surname Finbarr, or Barr the White, was 
afterward given him. He was Bishop of Cork seventeen 
years, and died in the midst of his friends at Cloyne, fif- 




494 LITTXE PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER 26. 



teen miles from Cork. His body was buried in his own 
cathedral at Cork, and his relics, some years after, were 
put in a silver shrine, and kept there, this great church 




bearing his name to this day. St. Finbarr's cave or her- 
mitage w T as shown in a monastery which seems to have 
been begun by our Saint, and stood to the west of Cork. 



September 26.— STS. CYPRIAN and JUSTINA, Martyrs. 

he detestable superstition of St. Cyprian's idolatrous 
parents devoted him from his infancy to the devil, 
and he was brought up in all the impious mysteries of idol- 
atry, astrology, and the black art. When Cyprian had 
learned all the extravagances of these schools of error and 
delusion, he hesitated at no crimes, blasphemed Christ, and 
committed secret murders. There lived at Antioch a 
young Christian lady called Justina, of high birth and 
great beauty. A pagan nobleman fell deeply in love with 
her, and finding her modesty inaccessible, and her resQ- 



SEPTEMBER 26.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



495 



lution invincible, he applied to Cyprian for assistance. 
Cyprian, no less smitten with the lady, tried every secret 
with which he was acquainted to conquer her resolution. 
Justina, perceiving herself vigorously attacked, studied to 
arm herself by prayer, watchfulness, and mortification 
against all his artifices and the power of his spells. Cyprian 
finding himself worsted by a superior power, began to con- 
sider the weakness of the infernal spirits, and resolved to 
quit their service and become a Christian. Agladius, who 
had been the first suitor to the holy virgin, was likewise 
converted and baptized. The persecution of Diocletian 
breaking out, Cyprian and Justina were seized, and pre- 
sented to the same judge. She was inhumanly scourged, 
and Cyprian was . torn with iron hooks. After this they 
were both sent in chains to Diocletian, who commanded 
their heads to be struck off, which sentence was executed. 




Reflection. — If the errors and disorders of St. Cyprian 
show the degeneracy of human nature corrupted by sin 
and enslaved to vice, his conversion displays the power of 



496 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER 27. 



grace and virtue to repair it. Let us beg of God to send 
us grace to resist temptation, and to do His holy will in all 
things. 

September 27.— STS. COSMAS and DAMIAN, Martyrs, 

^Tts. Cosmas and Damian were brothers, and born in 
JF^ Arabia, but studied the sciences in Syria, and be- 
came eminent for their skill in physic. Being Christians, 




and full of that holy temper of charity in which the spirit 
of our divine religion consists, they practised their pro- 
fession with great application and wonderful success, but 
never took any fee. They were loved and respected by the 
people on account of the good offices received from their 
charity, and for their zeal for the Christian faith, which 
they took every opportunity to propagate. When the per- 
secution of Diocletian began to rage, it was impossible for 
persons of so distinguished a character to lie concealed. 
They were therefore apprehended by the order of Lysias, 



SEPTEMBER 28.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



497 



Governor of Cilicia, and after various torments were 
bound hand and foot and thrown into the sea. 

Reflection. — We may sanctify our labor or industry, if 
actuated by the motive of charity toward others, even 
whilst we fulfil the obligation we owe to ourselves and our 
families of procuring an honest and necessary subsistence, 
which of itself is no less noble a virtue, if founded in 
motives equally pure and perfect. 

September 28 ST. WENCESLAS, Martyr. 

V /) I 'enceslas was the son of a Christian Duke of Bohemia, 
VXA* but his mother was a hard and cruel pagan. 
Through the care of his holy grandmother, Ludmilla, her- 
self a martyr, Wenceslas was educated in the true faith, 
and imbibed a special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. 
On the death of his father, his mother, Drahomira, usurped 




the government and passed a series of persecuting laws. 
In the interests of the Faith Wenceslas claimed and ob- 
tained, through the support of the people, a large portion 



498 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [SEPTEMBER 29. 



of the country as his own kingdom. His mother secured 
the apostasy and alliance of her second son, Boleslas, who 
became henceforth her ally against the Christians. Wen- 
ceslas meanwhile ruled as a brave and pious king, pro- 
vided for all the needs of his people, and when his kingdom 
was attacked, overcame in single combat, by the sign of 
the cross, the leader of an invading army. In the service 
of God he was most constant, and planted with his own 
hands the wheat and grapes for the Holy Mass, at which 
he never failed daily to assist. His piety was the occasion 
of his death. Once, after a banquet at his brother's palace, 
to which he had been treacherously invited, he went, as 
was his wont at night, to pray before the tabernacle. 
There, at midnight on the feast of the Angels, a.d. 938, 
he received his crown of martyrdom, his brother dealing 
him the death-blow. 

Reflection. — St. Wenceslas teaches us that the safest 
place to meet the trials of life, or to prepare for the stroke 
of death, is before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 

September 29.— ST. MICHAEL, Archangel. 

i-ca-el," or "Who is like to God?" Such was the 
cry of the great Archangel when he smote the rebel 
Lucifer in the conflict of the heavenly hosts, and from 
that hour he has been known as " Michael," the captain of 
the armies of God, the type of divine fortitude, the cham- 
pion of every faithful soul in strife with the powers of evil. 
Thus he appears in Holy Scripture as the guardian of the 
children of Israel, their comfort and protector in times of 
sorrow or conflict. He it is who prepares for their return 
from the Persian captivity, who leads the valiant Macca- 
bees to victory, and who rescues the body of Moses from 
the envious grasp of the Evil One. And since Christ's 
coming the Church has ever venerated St. Michael as her 
special patron and protector. She invokes him by name in 




SEPTEMBER BO.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



409 



her confession of sin, summons him to the side of her chil- 
dren in the agony of death, and chooses nim as their escort 
from the chastening flames of purgatory to the realms of 
holy light. Lastly, when Antichrist shall have set up his 
kingdom on earth, it is Michael who will unfurl once more 
the standard of the Cross, sound the last trumpet, and bind- 
ing together the false prophet and the beast, hurl them for 
all eternity into the burning pool. 




Reflection. — " Whenever," says St. Bernard, " any griev- 
ous temptation or vehement sorrow oppresses thee, invoke 
thy guardian, thy leader ; cry out to him, and say, ' Lord, 
save us, lest we perish ! ' " 



September 30.— ST. JEROME, Doctor. 

T. Jerome, born in Dalmatia, a.d. 329, was sent to 
school at Kome. His boyhood was not free from 
fault. His thirst for knowledge was excessive, and his love 
of books a passion. He had studied under the best masters, 
visited foreign cities, and devoted himself to the pursuit of 




500 



LITTLE PICTORIAL f OCTOBER 1. 



science. But Christ had need of his strong will and active 
intellect for the service of His Church. St. Jerome felt and 
obeyed the call, made a vow of celibacy, fled from Rome to 




the wild Syrian desert, and there for four years learnt in 
solitude, penance, and prayer a new lesson of divine wis- 
dom. This was his novitiate. The Pope soon summoned 
him to Eome, and there put upon the now famous Hebrew 
scholar the task of revising the Latin Bible, which was to 
be his noblest work. Retiring thence to his beloved Beth- 
lehem, the eloquent hermit poured forth from his solitary 
cell for thirty years a stream of luminous writings upon 
the Christian world. 

Reflection. — " To know," says St. Basil, " how to submit 
thyself with thy whole soul, is to know how to imitate 
Christ." 

October 1.— ST. REMIGIUS, Bishop. 

emigius, or Remi, was born of noble and pious parents. 
At the age of twenty-two, in spite of the canons and 
of his own reluctance, he was acclaimed Archbishop of 




OCTOBER 1.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



501 



Rheims. He was unusually tall, his face impressed with 
blended majesty and serenity, his bearing gentle, humble, 
and retiring. He was learned and eloquent, and had the 
gift of miracles. His pity and charity were boundless, and 
in toil he knew no weariness. His body was the outward 
expression of a noble and holy soul, breathing the spirit of 
meekness and compunction. For so choice a workman 
God had fitting work. The South of France was in the 
hands of Arians, and the pagan Franks were wresting the 
North from the Romans. St. Remigius confronted Clovis, 
their king, and converted and baptized him at Christmas, 
a.d. 496. With him he gained the whole Frank nation. 
He threw down the idol altars, built churches, and ap- 
pointed bishops. He withstood and silenced the Arians, 
and converted so many that he left France a Catholic king- 
dom, its king the oldest and at the time the only crowned 




son of the Church. He died a.d. 533, after an episcopate 
of seventy- four years, the longest on record. 

Reflection. — Few men have had such natural advantages 
and such gifts of grace as St. Remi, and few have done so 



[oCTotJER 2, 



great a work. Learn from him to bear the world's praise 
as well as its scorn with a lowly and chastened heart. 

October 2.— THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS. 



f-^ov does not abandon to mere chance any of His 
handiworks ; by His providence He is everywhere 
present ; not a hair falls from the head or a sparrow to the 




ground without His knowledge. Not content, however, 
with yielding such familiar help in all things, not content 
with affording that existence which He communicates and 
perpetuates through every living being, He has charged 
His angels with the ministry of watching and safeguarding 
every one of His creatures that behold not His face. King- 
doms have their angels assigned to them, and men have 
their angels ; these latter it is whom religion designates as 
the Holy Guardian Angels. Our Lord says in the Gospel, 
u Beware lest ye scandalize any of these little ones, for 
their angels in heaven see thfi face of My Father." The 
existence of Guardian Angels is, hence, a dogma of the 



OCTOBER 3.] 



LtvfiS OF THE SAINTS. 



SOS 



Christian faith : this being so, what ought not our respect 
be for that sure and holy intelligence that is ever present 
at our side ; and how great should our solicitude be, lest, 
by any act of ours, we offend those eyes which are ever 
bent upon us in all our ways ! 

Reflection. — Ah ! let us not give occasion, in the lan- 
guage of Holy Scripture, to the angels of peace to weep 
bitterly. 

October 3.— ST. GERARD, Abbot. 

C^t. Gerard was of a noble family of the county of 
J^~^ Namur, France. An engaging sweetness of temper, 
and a strong inclination to piety and devotion, gained him 
from the cradle the esteem and affection of every one. 
Having been sent on an important mission to the Court of 




France, lie was greatly edified at the fervor of the monks 
of St. Denis, at Paris, and earnestly desired to consecrate 
himself to God with them. Returning home he settled his 
temporal affairs, and went back with great joy to St. 



504 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 4. 



Denis'. He had lived ten years with great fervor in this 
monastery, when in 931 he was sent by his abbot to found 
an abbey upon his estate at Brogue, three leagues from 
Namur. He settled this new abbey, and then built himself 
a little cell near the church, and lived in it a recluse until 
God called him to undertake the reformation of many mon- 
asteries, which he did successfully. When he had spent 
almost twenty years in these zealous labors, he shut him- 
self up in his cell, to prepare his soul to receive the recom- 
pense of his labors, to which he was called on the 3d of 
October in 959. 

Reflection. — Though we are in the world, let us strive to 
separate ourselves from it and consecrate ourselves to God, 
remembering that "the world passeth away, but he that 
doth the will of God abideth forever." 

October 4. — ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISL 

t. Francis, the son of a merchant of Assisi, was born 
in that city a.d. 1182. Chosen by God to be a living 
manifestation to the world of Christ's poor and suffering 
life on earth, he was early inspired with a high esteem and 
burning love of poverty and humiliation. The thought of 
the Man of Sorrows, Who had not where to lay His head, 
filled him with holy envy of the poor, and constrained him 
to renounce the wealth and worldly station which he ab- 
horred. The scorn and hard usage which he met with from 
his father and townsmen when he appeared among them in 
the garb of poverty were delightful to him. " Now," he 
exclaimed, "I can say truly, 'Our Father Who art in 
heaven.' " But divine love burned in him too mightily not 
to kindle like desires in other hearts. Many joined them- 
selves to him, and were constituted by Pope Innocent III. 
into a religious Order, which spread rapidly throughout 
Christendom. St. Francis, after visiting the East in the 
vain quest of martyrdom, spent his life like his Divine Mas- 




OCTOBER 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



505 



ter — now in preaching to the multitudes, now amid desert 
solitudes in fasting and contemplation. During one of 
these retreats he received on his hands, feet, and side the 
print of the five bleeding wounds of Jesus. With the cry, 
"Welcome, sister Death," he passed to the glory of his God 
October 4, 1226. 




Reflection. — "My God and my all," St. Francis' con- 
stant prayer, explains both his poverty and his wealth. 



October 5. — ST. PLACID, Martyr. 

t. Placid was born in Kome, in the year 515, of a 
patrician family, and at seven years of age was 
taken by his father to the monastery of Subiaco. At thir- 
teen years of age he followed St. Benedict to the new foun- 
dation at Monte Casino, where he grew up in the practice 
of a wonderful austerity and innocence of life. He had 
scarcely completed his twenty-first year when he was se- 
lected to establish a monastery in Sicily upon some estates 
which had been given by his father to St. Benedict. He 




§06 



[ocTGBEii 6. 



spent four years in building his monastery, and the fifth 
had not elapsed before an inroad of barbarians burned 
everything to the ground, and put to a lingering death not 




only St. Placid and thirty monks who had joined him, but 
also his two brothers, Eutychius and Victorinus, and his 
holy sister Flavia, who had come to visit him. The monas- 
tery was rebuilt, and still stands under his invocation. 



Reflection. — Adversity is the touchstone of the soul, be- 
cause it discovers the character of the virtue which it pos- 
sesses. One act of thanksgiving when matters go wrong 
with us is worth a thousand thanks when things are agree- 
able to our inclinations. 

October 6.— ST. BRUNO. 

Bruno was born at Cologne, about a.d. 1030, of an illus- 
trious family. He was endowed with rare natural 
gifts, which he cultivated with care at Paris. He became 
canon of Cologne, and then of Eheims, where he had the 
direction of theological studies. On the death of the bishop 



OCTOBER 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



507 



the see fell for a time into evil hands, and Bruno retired 
with a few friends into the country. There he resolved to 
forsake the world, and live a life of retirement and penance. 
With six companions he applied to Hugh, Bishop of Greno- 
ble, who led them into a wild solitude called the Chartreuse. 
There they lived in poverty, self-denial,. and silence, each 
apart in his own cell, meeting only for the worship of God, 
and employing themselves in copying books. From the 
name of the spot the Order of St. Bruno was called the Car- 
thusian. Six years later, Urban II. called Bruno to Rome, 
that he might avail himself of his guidance. Bruno tried 
to live there as he had lived in the desert ; but the echoes 
of the great city disturbed his solitude, and, after refusing 
high dignities, he wrung from the Pope permission to re- 
sume his monastic life in Calabria. There he lived, in hu- 




mility and mortification and great peace, till his blessed 
death in 1101. 



Reflection. — "O everlasting kingdom," said St. Augus- 
tine ; " kingdom of endless ages, whereon rests the un- 
troubled light and the peace of God which passeth all 



508 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 7. 



understanding, where the souls of the Saints are in rest, 
and everlasting joy is on their heads, and sorrow and 
sighing have fled away ! When shall I come and appear 
before God ? " 

October 7 ST. MARK, Pope. 

C^tT. Mark was by birth a Eoman, and served God with 
such fervor among the clergy of that Church, that, 
advancing continually in sincere humility and the knowl- 




edge and sense of his own weakness and imperfections, he 
strove every day to surpass himself in the fervor of his 
charity and zeal, and in the exercise of all virtues. The 
persecution ceased in the West, in the beginning of the year 
305, but was revived a short time after by Maxentius. St. 
Mark abated nothing of his watchfulness, but endeavored 
rather to redouble his zeal during the peace of the Church ; 
knowing that if men sometimes cease openly to persecute 
the faithful, the devil never allows them any truce, and his 
snares are generally most to be feared in the time of the 



OCTOBER 8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



509 



calm. St. Mark succeeded St. Sylvester in the apostolic 
chair on the 18th of January, 336. He held that dignity 
only eight months and twenty days, dying on the 7th of 
October following. He was buried in a cemetery in the 
Ardeatine Way, which has since borne his name. 

Reflection. — A Christian ought to be afraid of no enemy 
more .than himself, whom he carries always about with 
him, and from whom he is not able to flee. He should 
therefore never cease to cry out to God, ' ' Unless Thou, O 
Lord, art my light and support, I watch in vain. " 

October 8.— ST. BRIDGET OF SWEDEN. 

*tt>iiidget was born of the Swedish royal family, a.d. 
A^-* 1304. In obedience to her father, she was married 
to Prince Ulpho of Sweden, and became the mother of eight 




children, one of whom, Catherine, is honored as a Saint. 
After some years she and her husband separated by 
mutual consent. He entered the Cistercian Order, and 



510 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 9. 



Bridget founded the Order of St. Saviour, in the Abbey of 
Wastein, in Sweden. In 1344 she became a widow, and 
thenceforth received a series of the most sublime revela- 
tions, all of which she scrupulously submitted to the judg- 
ment of her confessor. By the command of Our Lord, 
Bridget went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and amidst 
the very scenes of the Passion was further instructed in the 
sacred mysteries. She died a.d. 1373. 

Reflection. — " Is confession a matter of much time or 
expense ? " asks St. John Chrysostom. " Is it a difficult 
and painful remedy ? Without cost or hurt, the medicine 
is ever ready to restore you to perfect health." 

October 9.— ST. DIONYSIUS and his Companions, 
Martyrs. — ST. LOUIS BERTRAND. 

r\F all the Roman missionaries sent into Gaul, St. 

Dionysius carried the Faith the furthest into the 
country, fixing his see at Paris, and by him and his dis- 
ciples the sees of Chartres, Senlis, Meaux, and Cologne 
were erected in the fourth century. During the persecu- 
tion of Valerian he was arrested and thrown into prison, 
and after remaining there for some time was beheaded, 
together with St. Rusticus, a priest, and Eleutherius, a 
deacon. 

St. Louis Bertrand was born at Valencia, in Spain, a.d. 
1526, of the same family as St. Vincent Ferrer. In 1545, 
after severe trials, he was professed in the Dominican 
Order, and at the age of twenty-five was made master of 
novices, and trained up many great servants of God. 
When the plague broke out in Valencia he devoted himself 
to the sick and dying, and with his own hands buried the 
dead. In 1562 he obtained leave to embark for the Ameri- 
can mission, and there converted vast multitudes to the 
Faith. He was favored with the gift of miracles, and 
while preaching in his native Spanish was understood in 



OCTOBER 10.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



Sii 



various languages. After seven years he returned to 
Spain, to plead the cause of the oppressed Indians, but he 
was not permitted to return and labor among them. He 
spent his remaining days toiling in his own country, till at 
length, in 1580, he was carried from the pulpit in the 




Cathedral at Valencia to the bed from whence he never 
rose. He died on the day he had foretold — October 9, 
1581. 

Reflection. — The Saints fasted, toiled, and wept, not only 
for love of God, but for fear of damnation. How shall we, 
with our self-indulgent lives and unexamined consciences, 
face the judgment-seat of Christ ? 

October 10 — ST. FRANCIS BORGIA. 

Brancis Borgia, Duke of Gandia and Captain-General 
of Catalonia, w T as one of the handsomest, richest, 
and most honored nobles in Spain, when, in 1539, there 
was laid upon him the sad duty of escorting the re- 
mains of his sovereign, Queen Isabella, to the royal 



512 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 10. 



bury ing-pl ace at Granada. The coffin had to be opened 
for him that he might verify the body before it was placed 
in the tomb, and so foul a sight met his eyes that he vowed 




never again to serve a sovereign who could suffer so base a 
change. It was some years before he could follow the call 
of his Lord ; at length he entered the Society of Jesus to 
cut himself off from any chance of dignity or preferment. 
But his Order chose him to be its head. The Turks were 
threatening Christendom, and St. Pius V. sent his nephew 
to gather Christian princes into a league for its defence. 
The holy Pope chose Francis to accompany him, and, worn 
out though he was, the Saint obeyed at once. The fatigues 
of the embassy exhausted what little life was left. St. 
Francis died on his return to Rome, October 10, 1572. 

Reflection.— St. Francis Borgia learnt the worthlessness 
of earthly greatness at the funeral of Queen Isabella. Do 
the deaths of friends teach us aught about ourselves ? 



OCTOBER 11.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



518 



October 11. — ST. TARACHUS and his Companions. 

IN the year 304, Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus, 
differing in age and nationality, but united in the . 
bonds of faith, being denounced as Christians to Nu- 
merian, Governor of Cilicia, were arrested at Pompeiopolis, 
and conducted to Tharsis. They underwent a first exam- 
ination in that town, after which their limbs were torn 
with iron hooks, and they ,vere taken back to prison cov- 
ered with wounds. Being afterwards led to Mopsuestia, 
they were submitted to a second examination, ending in a 
manner equally cruel as the first. They underwent a third 
examination at Anazarbis, followed by greater torments 
still. The governor, unable to shake their constancy, had 
them kept imprisoned that he might torture them further 
at the approaching games. They were borne to the amphi- 




theatre, but the most ferocious animals, on being let loose 
on them, came crouching to their feet and licked their 
wounds. The judge, reproaching the jailers with conniv- 



614 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [OCTOBER 12. 



ance, ordered the martyrs to be despatched by the gladia- 
tors. 

Reflection. — Such is true Christian devotion. " Neither 
death nor life shall be able to separate us from the love 
that is in Christ Jesus." 

October 12 — ST. WILFRID, Bishop. 

Yt quick walker, expert at all good works, with never a 
cJr*-* sour face 71 — such was the great St. Wilfrid, whose 
glory it was to secure the happy links which bound Eng- 




land to Borne. He was born about the year 634, and was 
trained by the Celtic monks at Lindisfarne in the peculiar 
rites and usages of the British Church. Yet even as a boy 
Wilfrid louged for perfect conformity in discipline, as in 
doctrine, with the Holy See, and at the first chance set oft 
himself for Kome. On his return he founded at Kipon 
a strictly Koman monastery, under the rule of St. Benedict. 
In the year 664 he was elected Bishop of Lindisfarne, and 
five years later was transferred to the see of York. He had 



OCTOBER 13.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



51 S 



to combat the passions of wicked kings, the cowardice of 
worldly prelates, the errors of holy men. He was twice 
exiled and once imprisoned ; yet the battle which he fought 
was won. He swept away the abuses of many years and a 
too national system, and substituted instead a vigorous 
Catholic discipline, modelled and dependent on Rome. He 
died October 12, 709, and at his death was heard the sweet 
melody of the angels conducting his soul to Christ. 

Reflection. — To look towards Rome is an instinct planted 
in us for the preservation of the Faith. Trust in the Vicar 
of Christ necessarily results from the reign of His love in 
our hearts. 



October 13. — ST. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 



£N*dwakd was unexpectedly raised to the throne of Eng- 
^-4 land at the age of forty years, twenty-seven of 
which he had passed in exile. On the throne, the virtues 




of his earlier years, simplicity, gentleness, lowliness, but 
above all his angelic purity, shone with new brightness. 
By a rare inspiration of God, though he married to content 



little Pictorial [october 14. 



his nobles and people, he preserved perfect chastity in the 
wedded state. So little did he set his heart on riches, that 
thrice when he saw a servant robbing his treasury he let 
him escape, saying the poor fellow needed the gold more than 
he. He loved to stand at his palace-gate, speaking kindly 
to the poor beggars and lepers who crowded about him, 
and many of whom he healed of their diseases. The long 
wars had brought the kingdom to a sad state, but Edward's 
zeal and sanctity soon wrought a great change. His reign 
of twenty-four years was one of almost unbroken peace, 
the country grew prosperous, the ruined churches rose 
under his hand, the weak lived secure, and for ages after- 
wards men spoke with affection of the " laws of good St. 
Edwwd." The holy king had a great devotion to building 
and enriching churches. Westminster Abbey was his latest 
and noblest work. He died January 5, 1066. 

Reflection. — David longed to build a temple for God's 
service. Solomon reckoned it his glory to accomplish the 
work. But we, who have God made flesh dwelling in our 
tabernacles, ought to think no time, no zeal, no treasures 
too much to devote to the splendor and beauty of a Chris- 
tian church. 

October* 14. — ST. CALLISTUS, Pope, Martyr. 

arly in the third century, Callistus, then a deacon, 
was intrusted by Pope St. Zephyrinus with the rule 
of the clergy, and set by him over the cemeteries of the 
Christians at Kome ; and, at the death of Zephyrinus, Cal- 
listus, according to the Roman usage, succeeded to the 
Apostolic See. A decree is ascribed to him appointing the 
four fasts of the Ember seasons, but his name is best known 
in connection with the old cemetery on the Appian Way, 
which was enlarged and adorned by him, and is called to 
this day the Catacomb of St. Callistus. During the perse- 
cution under the Emperor Severus, St. Callistus was driven 




OCTOBER 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



to take shelter in the poor and populous quarters of the 
city ; yet, in spite of these troubles, and of the care of the 
Church, he made diligent search for the body of Calipodius, 
one of his clergy who had suffered martyrdom shortly 
before, by being cast into the Tiber. When he had found 




it he was full of joy, and buried it, with hymns of praise. 
Callistus was martyred October 14, 223. 

Reflection. — In the body of a Christian we see that which 
has been the temple of the Holy Ghost, which even now is 
precious in the eyes of God, Who will watch over it, and 
one day raise it up in glory to shine forever in His king- 
dom. Let our actions bear witness to our belief in these 
truths. 

October 15, — ST, TERESA. 

hen a child of seven years, Teresa ran away from her 
home at Avila in Spain, in the hope of being mar- 
tyred by the Moors. Being brought back and asked the 
reason of her flight, she replied, ' 1 1 want to see God, and 



518 



Little pictorial 



[October 15. 



I must die before I can see Him." She then began with her 
brother to build a hermitage in the garden, and was often 
heard repeating " Forever, forever." Some years later she 
became a Carmelite nun. Frivolous conversations checked 
her progress towards perfection, but at last, in her thirty- 




first year, she gave herself wholly to God. A vision 
showed her the very place in hell to which her own light 
faults would have led her, and she lived ever after in the 
deepest distrust of self. She was called to reform her 
Order, favored with distinct commands from Our Lord, and 
her heart was pierced with divine love ; but she dreaded 
nothing so much as delusion, and to the last acted only 
under obedience to her confessors, which both made her 
strong and kept her safe. She died on October 4, 1582. 

Reflection.— " After all I die a child of the Church." 
These were the Saint's last words. They teach us the lesson 
of her life — to trust in humble, childlike obedience to our 
spiritual guides as the surest means of salvation. 



OCTOBER 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



519 



October 16.— ST. GALL, Abbot. 
rjT. Gall was born in Ireland soon after the middle of 
the sixth century, of pious, noble, and rich parents. 
When St. Columban left Ireland, St. Grail accompanied 
him into England, and afterward into France, where they 
arrived in 585. St. Columban founded the monastery of 
Anegray, in a wild forest in the diocese of Besancon, and 
two years afterward another in Luxeu. Being driven 
thence by King Theodoric, the Saints both withdrew into 
the territories of Theodebert. St. Columban, however, 
retired into Italy, but St. Gall was prevented from bearing 
him company by a grievous fit of illness. St. Gall was a 
priest before he left Ireland, and having learned the lan- 
guage of the country where he settled, near the Lake of 
Constance, he converted to the faith a great number of 
idolaters. The ceils which this Saint bunt there for those 




who desired to serve God with him, he gave to the mon- 
astery which bears his name. A synod of bishops, with the 
clergy and people, earnestly desired to place the Saint in 



520 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 17 



the episcopal see of Constance ; but his modesty refused 
the dignity. He died in the year 646. 

Reflection. — "If any one would be My disciple," says 
Our Saviour, u let him deny himself." The denial of self 
is, then, the royal road to perfection. 

October 17.— ST. HEDWIGE.— BLESSED MARGARET 
MARY ALACOQUE. 

^^t. Hedwige, the wife of Henry, Duke of Silesia, and the 
mother of his six children, led a humble, austere, 
and most holy life amidst all the pomp of royal state. De- 




votion to the Blessed Sacrament was the key-note of her 
life. Her valued privilege was to supply the bread and 
wine for the Sacred Mysteries, and she would attend each 
morning as many Masses as were celebrated. After the 
death of her husband she retired to the Cistercian convent 
of Trebnitz, where she lived under obedience to her daugh- 
ter Gertrude, who was abbess of the monastery, growing 



OCTOBER 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



521 



day by day in holiness, till God called her to Himself, a.d. 
1242. 

Margaret Mary was born at Terreau in Burgundy, on 
the 22d July, 1647. During her infancy she showed a won- 
derfully sensitive horror of the very idea of sin. In 1671 
she entered the Order of the Visitation, at Paray-le-Monial, 
and was professed the following year. After purifying 
her by many trials, Jesus appeared to her in numerous 
visions, displaying to her His Sacred Heart, sometimes 
burning as a furnace, and sometimes torn and bleeding on 
account of the coldness and sins of men. In 1675 the great 
revelation was made to her that she, in union with Father 
de la Colombiere, of the Society of Jesus, was to be the 
chief instrument for instituting the feast of the Sacred 
Heart, and for spreading that devotion throughout the 
world. She died on the 17th October, 1690. 

Reflection. — Love for the Sacred Heart especially honors 
the Incarnation, and makes the soul grow rapidly in hu- 
mility, generosity, patience, and union with its Beloved. 

October 18.— ST. LUKE. 

t. Luke, a physician at Antioch, and a painter, became 
a convert of St. Paul, and afterwards his fellow- 
laborer. He is best known to us as the historian of the 
New Testament. Though not an eye-witness of Our Lord's 
life, the Evangelist diligently gathered information from 
the lips of the apostles, and wrote, as he tells us, all things 
in order. The Acts of the Apostles were written by this 
Evangelist as a sequel to his Gospel, bringing the history 
of the Church down to the first imprisonment of St. Paul 
at Rome. The humble historian never names himself, but 
by his occasional use of "we " for " they " we are able to 
detect his presence in the scenes which he describes. We 
thus find that he sailed with St. Paul and Silas from Troas 
to Macedonia ; stayed behind apparently for seven years at 




522 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 19. 



Philippi, and, lastly, shared the shipwreck and perils of the 
memorable voyage to Rome. Here his own narrative ends, 
but from St. Paul's Epistles we learn that St. Luke was his 




faithful companion to the end. He died a martyr's death 
some time afterwards in Achaia. 



Reflection. — Christ has given all He had for thee ; do 
thou give all thou hast for Him. 

October 19.— ST. PETER OF ALCANTARA. 

eter, while still a youth, left his home at Alcantara 
in Spain, and entered a convent of Discalced Fran- 
ciscans. He rose quickly to high posts in the Order, but 
his thirst for penance was still unappeased, and in 1539, 
being then forty years old, he founded the first convent of 
the " Strict Observance." The cells of the friars resembled 
graves rather than dwelling-places. That of St. Peter him- 
self was four feet and a half in length, so that he could 
never lie down ; he ate but once in three days ; his sack- 
cloth habit and a cloak were his only garments, and he 




OCTOBER 20.] 



LIVES OF "THE SAINTS. 



522 



never covered his head or feet. In the bitter winter he 
would open the door and window of his cell that, by closing 
them again, he might experience some sensation of warmth. 
Amongst those whom he trained to perfection was St. 
Teresa. He read her soul, approved of her spirit of prayer, 
and strengthened her to carry out her reforms. St. Peter 
died, with great joy, kneeling in prayer, October 18, 1562, 
at the age of sixty-three. 

Reflection. — If men do not go about barefoot now, nor 
undergo sharp penances, as St. Peter did, there are many 



ways of trampling on the world ; and Our Lord teaches 
them w T hen He finds the necessary courage. 

October 20.— ST. JOHN CANTIUS. 

^^t. John was born at Kenty in Poland, a.d. 1403, and 
studied at Cracow with great ability, industry, and 
success, while his modesty and virtue drew all hearts to 
him. He was for a short time in charge of a parish ; but 



524 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



f OCTOBER 21. 



he shrank from the burden of responsibility, and returned 
to his life of professor at Oracow. There for many years 
he lived a life of unobtrusive virtue, self-denial, and charity. 




His love for the Holy See led him often in pilgrimage to 
Rome, on foot and alone, and his devotion to the Passion 
drew him once to Jerusalem, where he hoped to win a 
martyr's crown by preaching to the Turks. He died a.d. 
1473, at the age of seventy. 

Reflection. — He who orders all his doings according to 
the will of God may often be spoken of by the world as 
simple and stupid ; but in the end he wins the esteem and 
confidence of the world itself, and the approval and peace 
of God. 

October 21.— ST. URSULA, Virgin and Martyr. 

number of Christian families had intrusted the 
education of their children to the care of the pious 
Ursula, and some persons of the world had in like manner 




OCTOBER 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAlHTS. 



525 



placed themselves under her direction. England being then 
harassed by. the Saxons, Ursula deemed that she ought, 
after the example of many of her compatriots, to seek an 
asylum in Gaul. She met with an abiding-place on the 
borders of the Ehine, not far from Cologne, where she 
hoped to find undisturbed repose ; but a horde of Huns 
having invaded the country, she was exposed, together with 
all those who were under her guardianship, to the most 
shameful outrages. Without wavering, they preferred one 
and all to meet death rather than incur shame. Ursula 
herself gave the example, and was, together with her com- 
panions, cruelly massacred in the year 453. The name of 
St. Ursula has from remote ages been held in great honor 
throughout the Church ; she has always been regarded as 
the patroness of young persons and the model of teachers. 




Reflection. — In the estimation of the wise man, " the 
guarding of virtue" is the most important part of the 
education of youth. 



LITTLE PICTOHIAL 



[OCTOBER Mi 



October 22 ST. MELLO, Bishop.— ST. HILARION, 

Abbot. 

t. Mello is said to have been a native of Great 
Britain ; his zeal for the Faith engaged him in the 
sacred ministry, and God having blessed his labors with 
wonderful success, he was consecrated first bishop of Rouen 
in Normandy, which see he is said to have held forty years. 
He died in peace, about the beginning of the fourth cen- 
tury. 

St. Hilamon was born of heathen parents, near Gaza, 
and was converted while studying grammar in Alexandria. 
Shortly after, he visited St. Antony, and, still only in his 
fifteenth year, he became a solitary in the Arabian desert. 
A multitude of monks, attracted by his sanctity, peopled 
the desert where he lived. In consequence of this, he fled 
from one country to another, seeking to escape the praise 
of men ; but everywhere his miracles of mercy betrayed his 
presence. Even his last retreat at Cyprus was broken by 
a paralytic, who was cured by St. Hilarion, and then spread 
% the fame of the Saint. He died with the words, " Go forth, 
my soul ; why dost thou doubt ? Nigh seventy years hast 
thou served God, and dost thou fear death ? " 

October- 23 ST. THEODORET, Martyr. 

bout the year 361, Julian, uncle to the emperor of 
that name, and like his nephew an apostate, was 
made Count of the East. He closed the Christian churches 
at Antioch, and when St. Theodoret assembled the Chris- 
tians in private, he was summoned before the tribunal of 
the Count and most inhumanly tortured. His arms and 
feet were fastened by ropes to pulleys, and stretched until 
his body appeared nearly eight feet long, and the blood 
streamed from his sides. u O most wretched man," he said 
to his judge, " you know well that at the day of judgment 





OCTOBER M.] 



LivES Of TME SAItt^. 



527 



the crucified God Whom you blaspheme will send you and 
the tyrant whom you serve to hell." Julian trembled at 
this awful prophecy, but he had the Saint despatched 
quickly by the sword, and in a little while the judge him- 
self was arraigned before the judgment-seat of God. 



Reflection. — Those who do not go down to hell in spirit 
are very likely to go there in reality. Take care to medi- 
tate upon the four last things, and to live in holy fear. 




You will learn to love God better by thinking how He pun- 
ishes those who do not love Him. 



October 24.— ST. MAGLOIRE, Bishop. 

t. Magloire was born in Brittany towards the end of 
the fifth century. When he and his cousin St. 
Sampson came of an age to choose their way in life, Samp- 
son retired into a monastery, and Magloire returned home, 
where he lived in the practice of virtue. Amon, Sampson's 
father, having been cured by prayer of a dangerous disease, 
left the world, and with his entire family consecrated him- 




528 



LITTLE PICTOBIAL 



[OCTOBEK 24. 



self to God. Magloire was so affected at this that, with 
his father, mother, and two brothers, he resolved to fly the 
world, and they gave all their goods to the poor and the 
Church. Magloire and his father attached themselves to 




Sampson, and obtained his permission to take the monastic 
habit in the house over which he presided. When Sampson 
was consecrated bishop, Magloire accompanied him in his 
apostolical labors in Armorica, or Brittany, and at bis 
death he succeeded him in the Abbey of Dole and in the 
episcopal character. After three years he resigned his 
bishopric, being seventy years old, and retired into a desert 
on the continent, and some time after into the isle of 
Jersey, where he founded and governed a monastery of 
sixty monks. He died about the year 575. 

Reflection. — " Be mindful of them that have rule over 
you, who have spoken to you the word of God, whose faith 
follow, considering the end." 



OCTOBER 25,] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



529 



October 25.— STS. CRISPIN and CRISPINIAN, Martyrs. 

^^hese two glorious martyrs came from Kome to preach 
the Faith in Gaul toward the middle of the third 
century. Fixing their residence at Soissons, they in- 
structed many in the Faith of Christ, which they preached 
publicly in the day, and at night they worked at making 
shoes, though they are said to have been nobly born, and 
brothers. The infidels listened to their instructions, and 
were astonished at the example of their lives, especially of 
their charity, disinterestedness, heavenly piety, and con- 
tempt of glory and all earthly things ; and the effect was 
the conversion of many to the Christian faith. The 
brothers had continued their employment several years 
when a complaint was lodged against them. The em- 




peror, to gratify their accusers and give way to his savage 
cruelty, gave orders that they should be convened before 
Eictius Varus, the most implacable enemy of the Chris- 
tians. The martyrs were patient and constant under the 



S30 



LXfTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 



most cruel torments, and finished their course by the 
sword about the year 287. 

Reflection. — Of how many may it be said that "they 
labor in vain," since God is not the end and purpose that 
inspires the labor ? 

October 26.— ST. EVARISTUS, Pope and Martyr. 

C^(t. Evaristus succeeded St. Anacletus in the see of 
Rome, in the reign of Trajan, governed the Church 
nine years, and died in 112. The institution of cardinal 




priests is by some ascribed to him, because he first divided 
Rome into several titles or parishes, assigning a priest to 
each ; he also appointed seven deacons to attend the 
bishop. He conferred holy orders thrice in the month of 
December, when that ceremony was most usually per- 
formed, for holy orders were always conferred in seasons 
appointed for fasting and prayer. St. Evaristus was buried 
near St. Peter's tomb on the Vatican. 



OCTOBEK 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



531 



Reflection. — The disciples of the apostles, by assiduous 
meditation on heavenly things, were so swallowed up in 
the life to come, that they seemed no longer inhabitants 
of this world. If Christians esteem and set their hearts 
on earthly goods, and lose sight of eternity in the course 
of their actions, they are no longer animated by the spirit 
of the primitive Saints, and are become children of this 
world, slaves to its vanities, and to their own irregular 
passions. If we do not correct this disorder of our hearts, 
and conform our interior to the spirit of Christ, we cannot 
be entitled to His promises. 



October 27.— ST. FRUMENTIUS, Bishop. 

cSt. Frumentius was yet a child when his uncle, Mero- 
pius of Tyre, took him and his brother Edesius on 
a voyage to Ethiopia. In the course of their voyage the 




vessel touched at a certain port, and the barbarians of that 
country put the crew and all the passengers to the sword, 
except the two children. They were carried to the king, 



532 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 28. 



at Axuma, who, charmed with the wit and sprightliness of 
the two boys, took special care of their education ; and, 
not long after made Edesius his cup-bearer, and Frumen- 
tius, who was the elder, his treasurer and secretary of 
state ; on his death-bed he thanked them for their ser- 
vices, and in recompense gave them their liberty. After 
his death the queen begged them to remain at court, and 
assist her in the government of the state until the young 
king came of age. Edesius went back to Tyre, but St. 
Athanasius ordained Frumentius Bishop of the Ethiopians, 
and vested with this sacred character he gained great 
numbers to the Faith, and continued to feed and defend 
his flock till it pleased the Supreme Pastor to recompense 
his fidelity and labors. 

Reflection. — "The soul that journeys in the light and 
the truths of the Faith is safe against all error." 



October 28.— STS. SIMON and JUDE. 

^^imon was a simple Galilean, called by Our Lord to be 
one of the pillars of His Church. Zelotes, " the 
zealot," was the surname which he bore among the disci- 
ples. Armed with this zeal he went forth to the combat 
against unbelief and sin, and made conquest of many souls 
for His divine Lord. 

The apostle Jude, whom the Church commemorates on 
the same day, was a brother of St. James the Less. They 
were called "brethren of the Lord," on account of their 
relationship to His Blessed Mother. St. Jude preached first 
in Mesopotamia, as St. Simon did in Egypt ; and finally 
they both met in Persia, where they won their crown 
together. 

Reflection. — Zeal is an ardent love which makes a man 
fearless in defence of God's honor, and earnest at all costs 



OCTOBER 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



533 




to make known the truth. If we would be children of the 
Saints, we must be zealous for the Faith. 



October 29.— ST. NARCISSUS, Bishop. 

T. Narcissus was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem 
about the year 180. He was already an old man, 
and God attested his merits by many miracles, which were 
long held in memory by the Christians of Jerusalem. One 
Holy Saturday in the church the faithful were in great 
trouble, because no oil could be found for the lamps which 
were used in the Paschal feast. St, Narcissus bade them 
draw water from a neighboring well, and, praying over it, 
told them to put it in the lamps. It was changed into 
oil, and long after some of this oil was preserved at Jeru- 
salem in memory of the miracle. But the very virtue of 
the Saint made him enemies, and three wretched men 
charged him with an atrocious crime. They confirmed 
their testimony by horrible imprecations : the first prayed 
that he might perish by fire, the second that he might be. 




534 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 30. 



wasted by leprosy, the third that he might be struck blind, 
if they charged their bishop falsely. The holy bishop had 
long desired a life of solitude, and he withdrew secretly 
into the desert, leaving the Church in peace. But God 




spoke for His servant, and the bishop's accusers suffered 
the penalties they had invoked. Then Narcissus returned 
to J erusalem and resumed his office. He died in extreme 
old age, bishop to the last. 

Reflection. — God never fails those who trust in Him ; He 
guides them through darkness and through trials secretly 
and surely to their end, and in the evening time there is 
light. 

October 30.— ST. MARCELLUS, THE CENTURION, 
Martyr. 

he birthday of the Emperor Maximian Herculeus, in the 
year 298, was celebrated with extraordinary feasting 
and solemnity. Marcellus, a Christian centurion or cap- 




OCTOBER 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



535 



tain in the legion of Trajan, then posted in Spain, not to 
defile himself with taking part in those impious abomina- 
tions, left his company, declaring aloud that he was a sol- 
dier of Jesus Christ, the eternal King. He was at once 
committed to prison. "When the festival was over, Marcel- 
lus was brought before a judge, and, having declared his 
faith, was sent under a strong guard to Aurelian Agrico- 
laus, vicar to the prefect of the prsetorium, who passed 
sentence of death upon him. St. Marcellus was forthwith 
led to execution, and beheaded on the 30th of October. 
Cassian, the secretary or notary of the court, refused to 
write the sentence pronounced against the martyr, because 
it was unjust. He was immediately hurried to prison, and 
was beheaded, about a month after, on the 3d of December. 



Reflection. — " We are ready to die rather than to trans- 
gress the laws of God ! " exclaimed one of the Machabees. 




This sentiment should ever be that of a Christian in pres- 
ence of temptation. 



536 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[OCTOBER 31. 



October 31.— ST. QUINTIN, Martyr. 

t. Quintin was a Koman, descended from a senatorial 
family. Full of zeal for the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ, he left his country, and, attended by St. Lucian of 
Beauvais, made his way to Gaul. They preached the Faith 
together in that country till they reached Amiens in Pic- 
ardy, where they parted. Lucian went to Beauvais, and, 
having sown the seeds of divine faith in the hearts of 
many, received the crown of martyrdom in that city. St. 




Quintin stayed at Amiens, endeavoring by his prayers and 
labors to make that country a portion of Our Lord's inheri- 
tance. He was seized, thrown into prison, and loaded with 
chains. Finding the holy preacher proof against promises 
and threats, the magistrate condemned him to the most 
barbarous torture. His body was then pierced with two 
iron wires from the neck to the thighs, and iron nails were 
thrust under his nails, and in his flesh in many places, par- 



NOVEMBER 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



537 



ticularly into his skull ; and, lastly, his head was cut off. 
His death happened on the 31st of October, 287. 

Reflection. — Let us bear in mind that the ills of this life 
are not worthy to be compared to the glory " God has re- 
served for those who love Him." 

November 1.— ALL- SAINTS. 

he Church pays, day by day, a special veneration to 
some one of the holy men and women who have 
helped to establish it by their blood, develop it by their 
labors, or edify it by their virtues. But, in addition to 
those whom the Church honors by special designation, or 
has inscribed in her calendar, how many martyrs are there 
whose names are not recorded ! How many humble virgins 
and holy penitents ! How many just and holy anchorites 
or young children snatched away in their innocence ! How 
many Christians who have died in grace, whose merits are 
known only to God, and who are themselves known only in 
heaven ! Now should we forget those who remember us in 
their intercessions ? Besides, are they not our brethren, 
our ancestors, friends, and fellow-Christians, with whom 
we have lived in daily companionship — in other words, our 
own family ? Yea, it is one family ; and our place is 
marked out in this home of eternal light and eternal love. 

Reflection. — Let us have a solicitude to render ourselves 
worthy of "that chaste generation, so beautiful amid the 
glory where it dwells." 

November 2.— ALL- SOULS. 

he Church teaches us that the souls of the just who 
have left this world soiled with the stain of venial 
sin remain for a time in a place of expiation, where they 
suffer such punishment as may be due to their offences. It 
is a matter of faith that these suffering souls are relieved 



538 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[NOVEMBER 2. 



by the intercession of the Saints in heaven and by the 
prayers of the faithful upon earth. To pray for the dead 
is, then, both an act of charity and of piety. We read in 
Holy Scripture : "It is a holy and wholesome thought to 




pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." 
And when Our Lord inspired St. Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, 
towards the close of the tenth century, to establish in his 
Order a general commemoration of all the faithful departed, 
it was soon adopted by the whole Western Church, and has 
been continued unceasingly to our day. Let us, then, ever 
bear in mind the dead and offer up our prayers for them. 
By showing this mercy to the suffering souls in purgatory, 
we shall be particularly entitled to be treated with mercy 
at our departure from this world, and to share more abun- 
dantly in the general suffrages of the Church, continually 
offered for all who have slept in Christ, 



KoViJMBER 2. ] LlV^S THE SAINTS. 



ST. IVIALACHI, Bishop. 

•-pXuitiNG his childhood Malachi would often separate bina- 
ry' self from his companions to converse in prayer with 
God. At the age of twenty-five he was ordained priest ; 
his devotion and zeal led to his being consecrated Bishop of 
Connor, and shortly afterwards he was made Archbishop 
of his native city, Armagh. This see having by a long- 
standing abuse been held as an heirloom in one family, it 
required on the part of the Saint no little tact and firmness 
to allay the dissensions caused by his election. One day, 
while St. Malachi was burying the dead, he was laughed at 
by his sister. "When she died, he said many Masses for her. 
Some time afterwards, in a vision, he saw her, dressed in 
mourning, standing in a churchyard, and saying that she 




had not tasted food for thirty days. Remembering that it 
was just thirty days since he last offered the Adorable Sac- 
rifice for her, he began again to do so, and was rewarded 
by other visions, in the last of which he saw her within the 



540 



little Pictorial [novembeb 3. 



church, clothed in white, near the altar, and surrounded by 
bright spirits. He twice made a pilgrimage to Eome, to 
consult Christ's Vicar, the lirst time returning as Papal 
Legate, amid the joy of his people, with the pall for 
Armagh ; but the second time bound for a happier home. 
He was taken ill at Clairvaux. He died, aged fifty-four, 
where he fain would have lived, in St. Bernard's monastery, 
on the 2d of November, 1148. 

Reflection. — Our Lord said to St. Gertrude, " God ac- 
cepts every soul you set free, as if you had redeemed him 
from captivity, and will reward you in a fitting time for 
the benefit you have conferred." 

November 3.— ST. HUBERT, Bishop. 

C^t. Hubert's early life is so obscured by popular tradi- 
tions that we have no authentic account of his 
actions. He is said to have been passionately addicted to 




hunting, and was entirely taken up in worldly pursuits. 
One thing is certain : that he is the patron saint of hunters. 



November 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



541 



Moved by divine grace, lie resolved to renounce the world. 
His extraordinary fervor, and the great progress which he 
made in virtue and learning, strongly recommended him to 
St. Lambert, Bishop of Maestricht, who ordained him priest, 
and entrusted him with the principal share in the adminis- 
tration of his diocese. That holy prelate being barbarously 
murdered in 681, St. Hubert was unanimously chosen his 
successor. With incredible zeal he penetrated into the 
most remote and barbarous places of Ardenne, and abol- 
ished the worship of idols ; and, as he performed the office 
of the apostles, God bestowed on him a like gift of miracles. 
He died on the 30th of May, in 727, reciting to his last 
breath the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. 

Reflection. — What the Wise Man has said of Wisdom 
may be applied to Grace : ' ' That it ordereth the means 
with gentleness, and attaineth its end with power." 

November 4.— ST. CHARLES BORROMEO. 

bout fifty years after the Protestant heresy had 
broken out, Our Lord raised up a mere youth to 
renew the face of His Church. In 1560 Charles Borromeo, 
then twenty-two years of age, was created cardinal, and by 
the side of his uncle, Pius IV., administered the affairs of 
the Holy See. His first care was the direction of the Coun- 
cil of Trent. He urged forward its sessions, guided its 
deliberations by continual correspondence from Rome, and 
by his firmness carried it to its conclusion. Then he en- 
tered upon a still more arduous work — the execution of its 
decrees. As Archbishop of Milan he enforced their ob- 
servance, and thoroughly restored the discipline of his see. 
He founded schools for the poor, seminaries for the clerics, 
and by his community of Oblates trained his priests to per- 
fection. Inflexible in maintaining discipline, to his flock 
he was a most tender father. He would sit by the road- 
side to teach a poor man the Pater and Ave, and would 




llTtLE PldWMAt (NOVEMBER §. 



enter hovels the stench of which drove his attendants from 
the door. During the great plague he refused to leave 
Milan, and was ever by the sick and dying, and sold even 
his bed for their support. So he lived and so he died, a 




faithful image of the Good Shepherd, up to his last hour 
giving his life for his sheep. 

Reflection. — Daily resolutions to fulfil, at all cost, every 
duty demanded by God, is the lesson taught by St. Charles ; 
and a lesson we must learn if we would overcome our cor- 
rupt nature and reform our lives. 

November 5.— ST. BERTILLE, Abbess. 

t. Bertille was born of one of the most illustrious 
families in the territory of Soissons, in the reign of 
Dagobert I. As she grew up she learned perfectly to de- 
spise the world, and earnestly desired to renounce it. Not 
daring to tell this to her parents, she first consulted St. 
Ouen, by whom she was encouraged in her resolution. The 




JSI O VJbiMBEH 6.] 



LIVES OiT THEJ SAlKTS. 



Saint's parents were then made acquainted with her desire, 
which God inclined them not to oppose. They conducted 
her to Jouarre, a great monastery in Brie, four leagues 
from Meaux, where she was received with great joy and 
trained up in the strictest practice of monastic perfection. 
By her perfect submission to all her sisters she seemed every 
one's servant, and acquitted herself with such great charity 
and edification that she was chosen prioress to assist the 
abbess in her administration. About the year 646 she was 
appointed first abbess of the abbey of Chelles, which she 
governed for forty-six years with equal vigor and discre- 
tion, until she closed her penitential life in 692. 




Reflection. — It is written that the Saints raise themselves 
heavenward, going from virtue to virtue, as by steps. 



November 6.— ST. LEONARD. 

*~| ' eonard, one of the chief personages of the court of 
Clovis, and for whom this monarch had stood as 
sponsor in baptism, was so moved by the discourse and ex- 



little pictorial 



[NOVEMBER 0. 



ample of St. Kemigius that he relinquished the world in 
order to lead a more perfect life. The Bishop of Eheims 
having trained Leonard to virtue, he became the apostle of 
such of the Franks as still remained pagans ; but fearing 




that he might be summoned to the court by his reputation 
for sanctity, he withdrew secretly to the monastery of Micy, 
near Orleans, and afterwards to the solitude of Noblac near 
Limoges. His charity not allowing him to remain inactive 
while there was so much good to be done, he undertook the 
work of comforting prisoners, making them understand that 
the captivity of sin was more terrible than any mere bodily 
constraint. He won over a great many of these unfortunate 
persons, which gained for him many disciples, in whose be- 
half he founded a new monastery. St. Leonard died about 
the year 550. 

Reflection. — u The wicked shall be taken with his own 
iniquities, and shall be held by the cords of his own sin." 



KoVeMber K.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



545 



November 7.— ST. WILLIBRORD. 

x T7j\ 'illibrord was born in Northumberland a.d. 657, and 
when twenty years old went to Ireland, to study 
under St. Egbert ; twelve years later, he felt drawn to con- 
vert the great pagan tribes who were hanging as a cloud 
over the north of Europe. He went to Rome for the bless- 
ing of the Pope, and with eleven companions reached 
Utrecht. The pagans would not accept the religion of 
their enemies, the Franks ; and St. Willibrord could only 
labor in the track of Pepin Heristal, converting the tribes 
whom Pepin subjugated. At Pepin's urgent request, he 
again went to Rome, and was consecrated Archbishop of 
Utrecht. He was stately and comely in person, frank and 
joyous, wise in counsel, pleasant in speech, in every work 




of God strenuous and unwearied. Multitudes were con* 
verted, and the Saint built churches and appointed priests 
all over the land. He wrought many miracles, and had 
the gift of prophecy. He labored unceasingly as bishop 



Lti'TLE PICTORIAL 



[noVeMB&K 9. 



for more than fifty years, beloved alike of God and of man, 
and died full of days and good works. 

Reflection. — True zeal has its root in the love of God. It 
can never be idle ; it must labor, toil, be doing great 
things. It glows as fire ; it is, like fire, insatiable. See if 
this spirit be in you ! 

November 8.— THE FEAST OF THE HOLY RELICS. 

rotestantism pretends to regard the veneration which 
the Church pays to the relics of the Saints as a sin, 
and contends that this pious practice is a remnant of 
paganism. The Council of Trent, on the contrary, has de- 
cided that the bodies of the martyrs and other Saints who 
were living members of Jesus Christ and temples of the 
Holy Ghost, are to be honored by the faithful. This de- 
cision was based upon the established usage of the earliest 
days of the Church, and upon the teaching of the Fathers 
and of the Councils. The Council orders, however, that all 
abuse of this devotion is to be avoided carefully, and for- 
bids any relics to be exposed which have not been approved 
by the bishops, and these prelates are recommended to 
instruct the people faithfully in the teaching of the Church 
on this subject. While we regret, then, the errors of the 
impious and of heretics, let us profit by the advantages 
which we gain by hearkening to the voice of the Church. 

November 9. — ST. THEODORE TYRO, Martyr. 

t. Theodore was born of a noble family in the East, 
and enrolled while still a youth in the imperial 
army. Early in 306 the emperor put forth an edict requir- 
ing all Christians to offer sacrifice, and Theodore had just 
joined the legion and marched with them into Pontus, 
when he had to choose between apostasy and death. He 
declared before his commander that he was ready to be cut 





NOVEMBER 9.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



547 



in pieces and offer up every limb to his Creator, Who had 
died for him. Wishing to conquer him by gentleness, the 
commander left him in peace for a while, that he might 
think over his resolution ; but Theodore used his freedom 
to set on fire the great temple of Isis, and made no secret 
of this act. Still his judge entreated him to renounce his 
faith and save his life ; but Theodore made the sign of the 
cross, and answered : "As long as I have breath, I will 
confess the name of Christ." After cruel torture, the 




judge bade him think of the shame to which Christ had 
brought him. " This shame, 1 ' Theodore answered, " I and 
all who invoke His name take with joy." He was con- 
demned to be burnt. As the flame rose, a Christian saw 
his soul rise like a flash of light to heaven. 

Reflection. — We are enlisted in the same service as the 
holy martyrs, and we too must have courage and con- 
stancy if we would be perfect soldiers of Jesus Christ. Let 
us take our part with them in confessing the faith of Christ 
and despising the world, that we may have our part with 
them in Christ's kingdom. 



548 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [NOVEMBER 10. 



November 10.— ST. ANDREW AVELLINO. 



*J i'fter a holy youth, Lancelot Avellino was ordained 
e*J-*-» priest at Naples. At the age of thirty-six he en- 
tered the Theatine Order, and took the name of Andrew, 




to show his love for the cross. For fifty years he was 
afflicted with a most painful rupture ; yet he would never 
use a carriage. Once when he was carrying the Viaticum, 
and a storm had extinguished the lamps, a heavenly light 
encircled him, guided his steps, and sheltered him from 
the rain. But as a rule, his sufferings were unrelieved by 
God or man. On the last day of his life, St. Andrew rose 
to say Mass. He was in his eighty-ninth year, and so weak 
that he could scarcely reach the altar. He began the 
" Judica," and fell forward in a fit of apoplexy. Laid on 
a straw mattress, his whole frame was convulsed in agony, 
while the fiend in visible form advanced to seize his soul. 
Then, as his brethren prayed and wept, the voice of Mary 
was heard, bidding the Saint's guardian angel send the 



NOVEMBER 11.] LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



549 



tempter back to hell. A calm and holy smile settled on the 
features of the dying Saint, as, with a grateful salutation 
to the image of Mary, he breathed forth his soul to God. 
His death happened on the 10th of November, 1608. 

Reflection. — St. Andrew, who suffered so terrible an 
agony, is the special patron against sudden death. Ask 
him to be with you in your last hour, and to bring Jesus 
and Mary to your aid. 

November 11. — ST. MARTIN OF TOURS. 

hen a mere boy, Martin became a Christian catechu- 
men against his parents' wish ; and at fifteen was 
therefore seized by his father, a pagan soldier, and enrolled 
in the army. One winter's day, when stationed at Amiens, 




he met a beggar almost naked and frozen with cold. Hav- 
ing no money, he cut his cloak in two and gave him the 
half. That night he saw Our Lord clothed in the half 
cloak, and heard Him say to the angels : "Martin, yet a 



550 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [NOVEMBER 12. 



catechumen, hath wrapped Me in this garment." This 
decided him to be baptized, and shortly after he left the 
army. He succeeded in converting his mother ; but, being 
driven from his home by the Arians, he took shelter with 
St. Hilary, and founded near Poitiers the first monastery in 
France. In 372 he was made Bishop of Tours. His flock, 
though Christian in name, was still pagan in heart. Un- 
armed and attended only by his monks, Martin destroyed 
the heathen temples and groves, and completed by his 
preaching and miracles the conversion of the people, 
whence he is known as the Apostle of Gaul. His last 
eleven years were spent in humble toil to atone for his 
faults, while God made manifest by miracles the purity of 
his soul. 

Reflection. — It was for Christ crucified that St. Martin 
worked. Are you working for the same Lord ? 

November 12.— ST. MARTIN, Pope. 

t. Martin, who occupied the Koman See from a.d. 
649 to 655, incurred the enmity of the Byzantine 
court by his energetic opposition to the Monothelite heresy, 
and the Exarch Olympius went so far as to endeavor to 
procure the assassination of the Pope as he stood at the 
altar in the Church of St. Mary Major ; but the would-be 
murderer was miraculously struck blind, and his master 
refused to have any further hand in the matter. His suc- 
cessor had no such scruples : he seized Martin, and con- 
veyed him on board a vessel bound for Constantinople. 
After a three months' voyage the island of ISTaxos was 
reached, where the Pope was kept in confinement for a 
year, and finally in 654 brought in chains to the imperial 
city. He was then banished to the Tauric Chersonese, 
where he lingered on for four months, in sickness and 
starvation, till God released him by death on the 12th of 
November, 655. 




November IB.] lives of the saints. 



651 



Reflection. — There have been times in the history of 
Christianity when its truths have seemed on the verge of 
extinction. But there is one Church whose testimony has 




never failed : it is the Church of St. Peter, the Apostolic 
and Eoman See. Put your whole trust in her teaching ! 



November 13.— ST. STANISLAS KOSTKA. 

t. Stanislas was of a noble Polish family. At the 
age of fourteen he went with his elder brother Paul 
to the Jesuits' College at Vienna; and though Stanislas 
was ever bright and sweet-tempered, his austerities were 
felt as a reproach by Paul, who shamefully maltreated him. 
This ill-usage and his own penances brought on a danger- 
ous illness, and, being in a Lutheran house, he was unable 
to send for a priest. He now remembered to have read of 
his patroness, St. Barbara, that she never permitted her 
clients to die without the Holy Viaticum : he devoutly ap- 
pealed to her aid, and she appeared with two angels, who 
gave him the Sacred Host. He was cured of this illness 




552 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[NOVEMBER 14. 



by Our Lady herself, and was bidden by her to enter the 
Society of Jesus. To avoid his father's opposition, he was 
obliged to fly from Vienna ; and, having proved his con- 
stancy by cheerfully performing the most menial offices, 




he was admitted to the novitiate at Home. There he lived 
for ten short months marked by a rare piety, obedience, 
and devotion to his institute. He died, as he had prayed 
to die, on the feast of the Assumption, 1568, at the age of 
seventeen. 



Reflection.— St. Stanislas teaches us in every trial of 
life, and above all in the hour of death, to have recourse 
to our patron Saint, and to trust without fear to his aid. 

November 14. — ST. DIDACUS. 

t. Didacus was born in Spain, in the middle of the 
fifteenth century. He was remarkable from child- 
hood for his love of solitude, and when a youth retired and 
led a hermit life, occupying himself with weaving mats, 




November 14.] lives op the saints. 



658 



like the fathers of the desert. Aiming at still higher per- 
fection, he entered the Order of St. Francis. His want of 
learning and his humility would not allow him to aspire 
to the priesthood, and he remained a lay-brother till his 
death, perfect in his close observance of the vows of 
poverty, chastity, and obedience, and mortifying his will 
and his senses in every way that he could contrive. At 
one time he was sent by his superiors to the Canary Islands, 
whither he went joyfully, hoping to win the crown of mar- 
tyrdom. Such, however, was not God's will, and after 
making many conversions by his example and holy words, 
he was recalled to Spain. There, after a long and painful 
illness, he finished his days, embracing the cross, which he 
had so dearly loved through his life. He died with the 
words of the hymn " Dulce lignum" on his lips. 




Reflection. — If God be in your heart, He will be also on 
your lips ; for Christ has said, "From the abundance of 
the heart the mouth speaketh. " 



§54 



LITTLE PlctfoRtAL [NOVEMBER l4. 



ST. LAURENCE OTOOLE, Archbishop of Dublin. 

C^ t. Laurence, it appears, was born about the year 1125. 

When only ten years old, his father delivered him 
up as a hostage to Dermod Mac Murehad, King of Leinster, 
who treated the child with great inhumanity, until his 
father obliged the tyrant to put him in the hands of the 
Bishop of Glendalough, in the county of Wicklow. The 
holy youth, by his fidelity in corresponding with the divine 




grace, grew to be a model of virtues. On the death of the 
bishop, who was also abbot of the monastery, St. Laurence 
was chosen abbot in 1150, though but twenty -five years 
old, and governed his numerous community with won- 
derful virtue and prudence. In 1161 St. Laurence was 
unanimously chosen to fill the new metropolitan See of 
Dublin. About the year 1171 he was obliged, for the 
affairs of his diocese, to go over to England to see the king, 
Henry II., who was then at Canterbury. The Saint was 
received by the Benedictine monks of Christ Church with 



NOVEMBER 15.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



55S 



the greatest honor and respect. On the following day, as 
the holy archbishop was advancing to the altar to officiate, 
a maniac^ w T ho had heard much of his sanctity, and who 
was led on by the idea of making so holy a man another 
St. Thomas, struck him a violent blow on the head. All 
present concluded that he was mortally wounded ; but the 
Saint coming to himself, asked for some water, blessed it, 
and having his wound washed with it, the blood was im 
mediately stanched, and the archbishop celebrated Mass. 
In 1175 Henry II. of England became offended with Rod- 
eric, the monarch of Ireland, and St. Laurence undertook 
another journey to England to negotiate a reconciliation 
between them. Henry was so moved by his piety, charity, 
and prudence that he granted him everything he asked, 
and left the whole negotiation to his discretion. Our Saint 
ended his journey here below on the 14th of November, 
1180, and was buried in the church of the abbey at Eu, on 
the confines of Normandy. 

November 15 ST. GERTRUDE, Abbess. 

ertrude was born in the year 1263, of a noble Saxon 
family, and placed at the age of five for education 
in the Benedictine abbey of Eodelsdorf. Her strong mind 
was carefully cultivated, and she wrote Latin with unusual 
elegance and force; above all, she was perfect in humility 
and mortification, in obedience, and in all monastic observ- 
ances. Her life was crowded with wonders. She has in 
obedience recorded some of her visions, in which she traces 
in words of indescribable beauty the intimate converse of 
her soul with Jesus and Mary. She was gentle to all, most 
gentle to sinners ; filled with devotion to the Saints of God, 
to the souls in purgatory, and above all to the Passion of 
Our Lord and to His Sacred Heart. She ruled her abbey 
with perfect wisdom and love for forty years. Her life 
was one of great and almost continual suffering, and her 




556 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [NOVEMBER 16. 



longing to be with Jesus was not granted till a.d. 1334, 
when she had reached her seventy-second year. 

Reflection. — No preparation for death can be better than 
to offer and resign ourselves anew to the Divine Will — 




humbly, lovingly, with unbounded confidence in the infinite 
mercy and goodness of God. 



November 16.— ST. EDMUND OF CANTERBURY. 

t. Edmund left his home at Abingdon, a boy of twelve 
years old, to study at Oxford, and there protected 
himself against many grievous temptations by a vow of 
chastity, and by espousing himself to Mary for life. He 
was soon called to active public life, and as treasurer of the 
diocese of Salisbury showed such charity to the poor that 
the dean said he was rather the treasure than the treasurer 
of their church. In 1234 he was raised to the see of Can- 
terbury, where he fearlessly defended the rights of Church 
and State against the avarice and greed of Henry III. ; but 




NOVEMBER 17.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



557 



finding himself unable to force that monarch to relinquish 
the livings which he kept vacant for the benefit of the 
royal coffers, Edmund retired into exile sooner than appear 
to connive at so foul a wrong. After two years spent in 
solitude and prayer, he went to his reward, and the mira- 
cles wrought at his tomb at Pontigny were so numerous 




that he was canonized in 1246, within four years of his 
death. 

Reflection. — The Saints were tempted even more than 
ourselves ; but they stood where we fall, because they 
trusted to Mary, and not to themselves. 



November 17.— ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 

t. Gregory was born in Pontus, of heathen parents. 
In Palestine, about the year 231, he studied philos- 
ophy under the great Origen, who led him from the pursuit 
of human wisdom to Christ, Who is the Wisdom of God. 
Not long after, he was made Bishop of Neo-Caesarea in his 




558 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [NOVEMBER 17. 



own country. As he lay awake one night an old man 
entered his room, and pointed to a lady of superhuman 
beauty, and radiant with heavenly light. This old man 
was St. John the Evangelist, and the lady told him to give 




Gregory the instruction he desired. Thereupon he gave 
St. Gregory a creed which contained in all its fulness the 
doctrine of the Trinity. St. Gregory set it in writing, 
directed all his preaching by it, and handed it down to his 
successors. Strong in this faith, he subdued demons ; he 
foretold the future. At his word a rock moved from its 
place, a river changed its course, a lake was dried up. He 
converted his diocese, and strengthened those under per- 
secution. He struck down a rising heresy ; and, when he 
was gone, this creed preserved his flock from the Arian 
pest. St. Gregory died in the year 270. 

Reflection. — Devotion to the blessed Mother of God is 
the sure protection of faith in her Divine Son. Every time 
that we invoke her, we renew our faith in the Incarnate 
God ; we reverse the sin and unbelief of our first parents ; 



November 18.] lives of the saints. 



559 



we take our part with her who was blessed because she 
believed. 

November 18.— ST. ODO OF CLUNY. 

ON Christmas-eve, a.d. 877, a noble of Aquitaine im- 
plored Our Lady to grant him a son. His prayer 
was heard ; Odo was born, and his grateful father offered 
him to St. Martin. Odo grew in wisdom and in virtue, and 
his father longed to see him shine at court. But the attrac- 
tion of grace was too strong. Odo's heart was sad and his 
health failed, until he forsook the world and sought refuge 
under the shadow of St. Martin at Tours. Later on he 
took the habit of St. Benedict at Baume, and was compelled 
to become abbot of the great abbey of Cluny, which was 
then building. He ruled it with the hand of a master and 




the winningness of a Saint. The Pope sent for him often 
to act as peacemaker between contending princes, and it 
was on one of those missions of mercy that he was taken 
ill at Kome. At his urgent entreaty he was borne back 



560 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[NOVEMBER 19. 



to Tours, where he died at the feet of u his own St. Mar- 
tin," a.d. 942. 

Reflection. — "It needs only," says Father Newman, 
" f or a Catholic to show devotion to any Saint, in order to 
receive special benefits from his intercession." 

November 19.— ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 

lizabeth was daughter of a king of Hungary, and 
niece of St. Hedwige. She was betrothed in in- 
fancy to Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, and brought up 




in his father's court. Not content with receiving daily 
numbers of poor in her palace, and relieving all in distress, 
she built several hospitals, where she served the sick, dress- 
ing the most repulsive sores with her own hands. Once as 
she was carrying in the folds of her mantle some provisions 
for the poor, she met her husband returning from the 
chase. Astonished to see her bending under the weight of 
her burden, he opened the mantle which she kept pressed 



NOVEMBER 20.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



561 



against her, and found in it nothing but beautiful red and 
white roses, although it was not the season for flowers. 
Bidding her pursue her way, he took one of the marvellous 
roses, and kept it all his life. On her husband's death she 
was cruelly driven from her palace, and forced to wander 
through the streets with her little children, a prey to hun- 
ger and cold ; but she welcomed all her sufferings, and 
continued to be the mother of the poor, converting many 
by her holy life. She died in 1231, at the age of twenty- 
four. 

Reflection. — This young and delicate princess made her- 
self the servant and nurse of the poor. Let her example 
teach us to disregard the opinions of the world and to over- 
come our natural repugnances, in order to serve Christ in 
the persons of His poor. 

November 20.— ST. FELIX OF VALOIS. 

t. Felix was son of the Count of Valois. His 
mother throughout his youth did all she could to 
cultivate in him a spirit of charity. The unjust divorce 
between his parents matured a long-formed resolution of 
leaving the world ; and, confiding his mother to her pious 
brother, Thibault, Count of Champagne, he took the Cis- 
tercian habit at Clairvaux. His rare virtues drew on him 
such admiration that, with St. Bernard's consent, he fled to 
Italy, where he led an austere life with an aged hermit. 
At this time he was ordained priest, and his old counsellor 
having died, he returned to France, and for many years 
lived as a solitary at Cerfroid. Here God inspired him 
with the desire of founding an Order for the redemption of 
Christian captives, and moved St. John of Hatha, then a 
youth, to conceive a similar wish. Together they drew up 
the rules of the Order of the Holy Trinity. Hany disciples 
gathered round them ; and, seeing that the time had come 
for further action, the two Saints made a pilgrimage to 




562 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL [NOVEMBER 21. 



Kome to obtain the confirmation of the Order from Inno- 
cent III. Their prayer was granted, and the last fifteen 
years of Felix's long life were spent in organizing and de- 




veloping his rapidly increasing foundations. He died a.d. 
1213. 



Reflection. — " Think how much," says St. John Chrysos- 
tom, " and how often thy mouth has sinned, and thou wilt 
devote thyself entirely to the conversion of sinners. For 
by this one means thou wilt blot out all thy sins, in that 
thy mouth will become the mouth of God." 

November 21 THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED 

VIRGIN MARY. 

eligious parents never fail by devout prayer to conse- 
crate their children to the divine service and love, 
both before and after their birth. Some amongst the 
Jews, not content with this general consecration of their 
children, offered them to God in their infancy, by the 
hands of the priests in the Temple, to be lodged in apart- 




HOVEMBER 21.] LIVES OF THE sAlttfg. 



56§ 



ments belonging to the Temple, and brought up in attend- 
ing the priests and Levites in the sacred ministry. It is 
an ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was 
thus solemnly offered to God in the Temple in her infancy. 
This festival of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin the 
Church celebrates this day. The tender soul of Mary was 
then adorned with the most precious graces, an object of 
astonishment and praise to the angels, and of the highest 
complacence to the adorable Trinity ; the Father looking 
upon her as His beloved daughter, the Son as one chosen 
and prepared to become His mother, and the Holy Ghost 
as His darling spouse. Mary was the first who set up the 
standard of virginity ; and, by consecrating it by a per- 
petual vow to Our Lord, she opened the way to all virgins 
who have since followed her example. 




Reflection. — Mary's first presentation to God was an 
offering most acceptable in His sight. Let our consecra- 
tion of ourselves to God be made under her patronage, 
and assisted by her powerful intercession and the union of 
her merits. 



§64 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[NOVEMBER 22. 



November 22.— ST. CECILIA, Virgin, Martyr, 

IN the evening of her wedding-day, with the music of 
the marriage-hymn ringing in her ears, Cecilia, a 
rich, beautiful, and noble Roman maiden, renewed the vow 




by which she had consecrated her virginity to God. 
" Pure be my heart and undefiled my flesh ; for I have a 
spouse you know not of — an angel of my Lord." The heart 
of her young husband Valerian was moved by her words ; 
he received Baptism, and within a few days he and his 
brother Tiburtius, who had been brought by him to a 
knowledge of the Faith, sealed their confession with their 
blood. Cecilia only remained. " Do you not know," was 
her answer to the threats of the prefect, " that I am the 
bride of my Lord Jesus Christ ? " The death appointed for 
her was suffocation, and she remained a day and a night in 
a hot-air bath, heated seven times its wont. But " the 
flames had no power over her body, neither was a hair of 
her head singed." The lictor sent to dispatch her struck 
with trembling hand the three blows which the law 



NOVEMBER 23.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



565 



allowed, and left her still alive. For two days and nights 
Cecilia lay with her head half severed on the pavement of 
her bath, f ally sensible, and joyfully awaiting her crown ; 
on the third the agony was over, and a.d. 177 the virgin 
Saint gave back her pure spirit to Christ. 

Reflection. — St. Cecilia teaches us to rejoice in every 
sacrifice as a pledge of our love of Christ, and to welcome 
sufferings and death as hastening our union with Him. 

November 23.— ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 

^^t. Clement is said to have been a convert of noble 
birth, and to have been consecrated bishop by St. 
Peter himself. With the words of the apostles still ringing 
in his ears, he began to rule the Church of God ; and thus 
he was among the first, as he was among the most illus- 




trious, in the long line of those who have held the place 
and power of Peter. He lived at the same time and in the 
same city with Domitian, the persecutor of the Church ; 
and besides external foes he had to contend with schism 



Little Pictorial [November %L 



and rebellion from within. The Corinthian Church was 
torn by intestine strife, and its members set the authority 
of their clergy at defiance. It was then that St. Clement 
interfered in the plenitude of his apostolic authority, and 
sent his famous epistle to the Corinthians. He urged the 
duties of charity, and above all of submission to the clergy. 
He did not speak in vain ; peace and order were restored. 
St. Clement had done his work on earth, and shortly after 
sealed with his blood the Faith which he had learned from 
Peter and taught to the nations. 

Reflection. — God rewards a simple spirit of submission 
to the clergy, for the honor done to them is done to Him. 
Your virtue is unreal, your faith in danger, if you fail in 
this. 

November 24. — ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS. 

^^he father of St. John was discarded by his kindred 
for marrying a poor orphan, and the Saint, thus 
born and nurtured in poverty, chose it also for his portion. 
Unable to learn a trade, he became the servant of the 
poor in the hospital of Medina, while still pursuing his 
sacred studies. In 1563, being then twenty-one, he 
humbly offered himself as a lay-brother to the Carmelite 
friars, who, however, knowing his talents, had him or- 
dained priest. He would now have exchanged to the 
severe Carthusian Order, had not St. Teresa, with the in- 
stinct of a Saint, persuaded him to remain and help her in 
the reform of his own Order. Thus he became the first 
prior of the Barefooted Carmelites. His reform, though 
approved by the general, was rejected by the elder friars, 
who condemned the Saint as a fugitive and apostate, and 
cast him into prison, whence he only escaped, after nine 
months' suffering, at the risk of his life. Twice again, 
before his death, he was shamefully persecuted by his 
brethren, and publicly disgraced. But his complete aban- 



NOVEMBER 25.] LIVES OF I'HE SAINTS. 567 



donment by creatures only deepened his interior peace and 
devout longing for heaven. 




Reflection. — "Live in the world," said St. John, "as if 
God and your soul only were in it ; so shall your heart be 
never made captive by any earthly thing." 



November 25 ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA. 

Catherine was a noble virgin of Alexandria. Before 
her Baptism, it is said, she saw in vision the 
Blessed Virgin ask her Son to receive her among His ser- 
vants, but the Divine Infant turned away. After Baptism, 
Catherine saw the same vision, when Jesus Christ received 
her with great affection, and espoused her before the court 
of heaven. When the impious tyrant Maximin II. came 
to Alexandria, fascinated by the wisdom, beauty, and 
wealth of the Saint, he in vain urged his suit. At last in 
his rage and disappointment he ordered her to be stripped 
and scourged. She fled to the Arabian mountains, where 
the soldiers overtook her, and after many torments put her 



568 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[NOVEMBER 26. 



to death. Her body was laid in Mount Sinai, and a beau- 
tiful legend relates that Catherine having prayed that no 




man might see or touch her body after death, angels bore 
it to the grave. 

Reflection. — The constancy displayed by the Saints in 
their glorious martyrdom cannot be isolated from their 
previous lives, but is their natural sequence. If we wish 
to emulate their perseverance, let us first imitate their 
fidelity to grace. 

November 26.— ST. PETER OF ALEXANDRIA, Bishop, 

Martyr. 

t. Peter governed the Church of Alexandria during 
the persecution of Diocletian. The sentence of ex- 
communication that he was the first to pronounce against 
the schismatics, Melitius and Arius, and which, despite the 
united efforts of powerful partisans, he strenuously upheld, 
proves that he possessed as much sagacity as zeal and firm- 




NOVEMBER 27.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



569 



ness. But his most constant care was employed in guard- 
ing his flock from the dangers arising out of persecution. 
He never ceased repeating to them that, in order not to 
fear death, it was needful to begin by dying to self, re- 
nouncing our will, and detaching ourselves from all things. 
St. Peter gave an example of such detachment by under- 
going martyrdom in the year 311. 

Reflection. — " How hardly shall they that have riches 
enter into the kingdom of God ! " says Our Saviour ; be- 




cause they are bound to earth by the strong ties of their 
riches. 

November 27.— ST. MAXIMUS, Bishop. 

BT. Maximus, abbot of Lerins, in succession to St. 
Honoratus, was remarkable not only for the spirit 
of recollection, fervor, and piety familiar to him from very 
childhood, but still more for the gentleness and kindliness 
with which he governed the monastery which at that time 



570 LITTLE PICTORIAL [ NOVEMBER Wt . 



contained many religious, and was famous for the learning 
and piety of its brethren. Exhibiting in his own person 
an example of the most sterling virtues, his exhortations 




could not fail to prove all-persuasive ; loving all his relig- 
ious, whom it was his delight to consider as one family, he 
established amongst them that sweet concord, union, and 
holy emulation for well- doing which render the exercise of 
authority needless, and makes submission a pleasure. The 
clergy and people of Frejus, moved by such a shining ex- 
ample, elected Maximus for their bishop, but he took to 
flight ; subsequently he was compelled, however, to accept 
the see of Riez, where he practised virtue in all gentleness, 
and died in 460, regretted as the best of fathers. 

Reflection. — ' 1 Masters, do to your servants that which 
is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in 
heaven." 



NOVEMBEB 28.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



571 



November 28.— ST. JAMES OF LA MARCA OF 
ANCONA. 

>^he small town of Montbrandon, in the Marca of An- 
cona, gave birth to this Saint. When young he 
was sent to the University of Perugia, where his progress 
in learning soon qualified him to be chosen preceptor to a 
young gentleman of Florence. Fearing that he might be 
ingulfed in the whirlpool of worldly excesses, St. James 
applied himself to prayer and recollection. When travel- 
ling near Assisium he went into the great Church of the 
Portiuncula to pray, and being animated by the fervor of 
the holy men who there served God, and by the example of 
their blessed founder St. Francis, he determined to petition 
in that very place for the habit of the Order. He began 
his spiritual war against the devil, the world, and the flesh, 




with assiduous prayer and extraordinary fasts and watch- 
ings. For forty years he never passed a day without 
taking the discipline. Being chosen Archbishop of Milan, 



572 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [NOVEMBER 29. 



he fled, and could not be prevailed on to accept the office. 
He wrought several miracles at Venice and at other places, 
and raised from dangerous sicknesses the Duke of Calabria 
and the King of Naples. The Saint died in the convent of 
the Holy Trinity of his Order, near Naples, on the 28th of 
November, in the year 1476, being ninety years old, seventy 
of which he had spent in a religious state. 

November 29.— ST. SATURNINUS, Martyr. 

aturninus went from Rome, by direction of Pope 
Fabian, about the year 245, to preach the Faith in 
Gaul. He fixed his episcopal see at Toulouse, and thus 




became the first Christian bishop of that city. There were 
but few Christians in the place. However, their number 
grew fast after the coming of the Saint ; and his power was 
felt by the spirits of evil, who received the w r orship of the 
heathen. His power was felt the more because he had to 
pass daily through the capitol, the high place of the 



NOVEMBER 30.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



573 



heathen worship, on the way to his own church. One day 
a great multitude was gathered by an altar, where a bull 
stood ready for the sacrifice. A man in the crowd pointed 
out Saturninus, who was passing by, and the people would 
have forced him to idolatry ; but the holy bishop answered: 
"I know but one God, and to Him I will offer the sacrifice 
of praise. How can I fear gods who, as you say, are afraiif 
of me?" On this he was fastened to the bull, which was 
driven down the capitol. The brains of the Saint were 
scattered on the steps. His mangled body was taken up 
and buried by two devout women. 

Reflection. — When beset by the temptations of the devil, 
let us call upon the Saints, who reign with Christ. They 
were powerful during their lives against the devil and his 
angels. They are more powerful now that they have passed 
from the Church on earth to the Church triumphant. 

November 30.— ST. ANDREW, Apostle. 

t. Andrew was one of the fishermen of Bethsaida, 
and brother, perhaps elder brother, of St. Peter, 
and became a disciple of St. John Baptist. He seemed 
always eager to bring others into notice ; when called him- 
self by Christ on the banks of the Jordan, his first thought 
was to go in search of his brother, and he said, " We have 
found the Messias," and he brought him to Jesus. It was 
he again who, when Christ wished to feed the five thousand 
in the desert, pointed out the little lad with the five loaves 
and fishes. St. Andrew went forth upon his mission to 
plant the Faith in Scythia and Greece, and at the end of 
years of toil to win a martyr's crown. After suffering a 
cruel scourging at Patrae in Achaia, he was left, bound by 
cords, to die upon a cross. When St. Andrew first caught 
sight of the gibbet on which he was to die, he greeted the 
precious wood with joy. "O good cross ! " he cried, 
"made beautiful by the limbs of Christ, so long desired, 




574 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 1. 



now so happily found ! Receive me into thy arms and pre- 
sent me to my Master, that He Who redeemed me through 
thee may now accept me from thee." Two whole days the 




martyr remained hanging on this cross alive, preaching, 
with outstretched arms from this chair of truth, to all who 
came near, and entreating them not to hinder his passion. 



Reflection.— If we would do good to others, we must, 
like St. Andrew, keep close to the cross. 

December 1.— ST. ELIGIUS. 

ligius, a goldsmith at Paris, was commissioned by 
King Clotaire to make a throne. With the gold 
and precious stones given him he made two. Struck by 
his rare honesty, the king gave him an appointment at 
court, and demanded an oath of fidelity sworn upon holy 
relics ; but Eligius prayed with tears to be excused, for fear 
of failing in reverence to the relics of the Saints. On en- 
tering the court he fortified himself against its seductions 
by many austerities and continual ejaculatory prayers. He 




DECEMBER 2.] LIYES OF THE SAINTS. 



575 



had a marvellous zeal for the redemption of captives, and 
for their deliverance would sell his jewels, his food, his 
clothes, and his very shoes, once by his prayers breaking 
their chains and opening their prisons. His great delight 
was in making rich shrines for relics. His striking virtue 
caused him, a layman and a goldsmith, to be made Bishop 
of Noyon, and his sanctity in this holy office was remark- 
able. He possessed the gifts of miracles and prophecy, and 
died in 665. 



Reflection. — When God called His Saints to Himself, He 
might, had He so pleased, have taken their bodies also ; 
but He willed to leave them in our charge, for our help and 




consolation. Be careful to imitate St. Eligius in making a 
good use of so great a treasure. 



December 2.— ST. BIBIANA, Virgin, Martyr. 

t. Bibiana was a native of Kome. Flavian, her 
father, was apprehended, burned in the face with 
a hot iron, and banished to Acquapendente, where he died 




576 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 2. 



of his wounds a few days after ; and her mother, Dafrosa, 
was some time after beheaded. Bibiana and her sister De- 
metria, after the death of their parents, were stripped of 




all they had in the world and suffered much from poverty. 
Apronianus, Governor of Rome, summoned them to appear 
before him. Demetria, having made confession of her 
faith, fell down and expired at the foot of the tribunal, in 
the presence of the judge. Apronianus gave orders that 
Bibiana should be put into the hands of a wicked woman 
named Rufina, who was to bring her to another way of 
thinking ; but Bibiana, making prayer her shield, remained 
invincible. Apronianus, enraged at the courage and per- 
severance of a tender virgin, ordered her to be tied to a 
pillar and whipped with scourges loaded with leaden plum- 
mets till she expired. The Saint underwent this punish- 
ment cheerfully, and died in the hands of the executioners. 

Reflection. — Pray for a fidelity and patience like Bibi- 
ana's under all trials, that neither convenience nor any 



DECEMBER 3.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



577 



worldly advantage may ever prevail upon you to transgress 
your duty. 

December 3.— ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 

* j ■ ' young Spanish gentleman, in the dangerous days of 
o/-*-» the Reformation, was making a name for himself 
as a Professor of Philosophy in the University of Paris, 
and had seemingly no higher aim, when St. Ignatius of 
Loyola won him to heavenly thoughts. After a brief 
apostolate amongst his countrymen in Rome he was sent 
by St. Ignatius to the Indies, where for twelve years he 
was to wear himself out, bearing the Gospel to Hindostan, 
to Malacca, and to Japan. Thwarted by the jealousy, covet- 
ousness, and carelessness of those who should have helped 
and encouraged him, neither their opposition nor the diffi- 




culties of every sort which he encountered could make him 
slacken his labors for souls. The vast kingdom of China 
appealed to his charity, and he was resolved to risk his life 
to force an entry, when God took him to Himself, and on 



578 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 4. 



the 2d of December, 1552, he died, like Moses, in sight of 
the land of promise. 

Reflection. — Some are specially called to work for souls ; 
but there is no one who cannot help much in their salva- 
tion. Holy example, earnest intercession, the offerings of 
our actions in their behalf — all this needs only the spirit 
which animated St. Francis Xavier, the desire to make 
some return to God. 

December 4. — ST. BARBARA, Virgin, Martyr. 

t. Barbara was brought up a heathen. A tyrannical 
father, Dioscorus, had kept her jealously secluded 
in a lonely tower which he had built for the purpose. 
Here, in her forced solitude, she gave herself to prayer and 
study, and contrived to receive instruction and Baptism by 




stealth from a Christian priest. Dioscorus, on discovering 
his daughter's conversion, was beside himself with rage. 
He himself denounced her before the civil tribunal. Bar- 



DECEMBER 5.] LIVES OF ME 



bara was horribly tortured, and at last was beheaded, her 
own father, merciless to the last, acting as her executioner. 
God, however, speedily punished her persecutors. While 
her soul was being borne by angels to Paradise, a flash of 
lightning struck Dioscorus, and he was hurried before the 
judgment-seat of God. 

Reflection. — Pray often against a sudden and unprovided 
death ; and, above all, that you may be strengthened by 
the Holy Viaticum against the dangers of your last hour. 

December 5. — ST. SABAS, Abbot. 

C^( t. Sabas, one of the most renowned patriarchs of the 
JS^ monks of Palestine, was born in the year 439, 
near Csesarea. In order to settle a dispute which had 
arisen between some of his relatives in regard to the ad- 




ministration of his estate, while still young he forsook the 
world and entered a monastery, w T herein he became a model 
of fervor. When Sabas had been ten years in this monas- 



536 



LlfTLE^ PICTORIAL 



[DECEMBER 6. 



tery, being eighteen years old, he went to Jerusalem to 
visit the holy places, and attached himself to a monastery 
then under control of St. Euthymius ; but on the death of 
the holy abbot our Saint sought the wilderness, where he 
chose his dwelling in a cave on the top of a high mountain, 
at the bottom of which ran the brook Cedron. After he 
had lived here five years, several came to him, desiring to 
serve God under his direction. He was at first unwilling 
to consent, but finally founded a new monastery of persons 
all desirous to devote themselves to praise and serve God 
without interruption. His great sanctity becoming known, 
he was ordained priest, at the age of fifty-three, by the 
patriarch of Jerusalem, and made Superior-General of all 
the anchorites of Palestine. He lived to be ninety-four, 
and died on the 5th of December, 532. 

December 6,— ST. NICHOLAS OF BARN 

t. Nicholas, the patron Saint of Russia, was born 
toward the end of the third century. His uncle, 
the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him priest, and 
appointed him abbot of a monastery ; and on the death of 
the archbishop he was elected to the vacant see. Through- 
out his life he retained the bright and guileless manners of 
his early years, and showed himself the special protector 
of the innocent and the wronged. Nicholas once heard 
that a person who had fallen into poverty intended to 
abandon his three daughters to a life of sin. Determined, 
if possible, to save their innocence, the Saint went out by 
night, and, taking w T ith him a bag of gold, flung it into the 
window of the sleeping father and hurried off. He, on 
awaking, deemed the gift a godsend, and with it dowered 
his eldest child. The Saint, overjoyed at his success, made 
like venture for the second daughter ; but the third time, 
as he stole away, the father, who was watching, overtook 
him and kissed his feet, saying : " Nicholas, why dost thou 




DECEMBER 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



581 



conceal thyself from me? Thou art my helper, and he 
who has delivered my soul and my daughters' from hell." 
St. Nicholas is usually represented by the side of a vessel, 
wherein a certain man had concealed the bodies of his 
three children whom he had killed, but who were restored 
to life by the Saint. He died a.d. 342. His relics were 
translated in 1807, to Bari, Italy, and there, after fifteen 
centuries, "the manna of St. Nicholas " still flows from 
his bones and heals all kinds of sick. 




Reflection. — Those who would enter heaven must be as 
little children, whose greatest glory is their innocence. 
Now, two things are ours to do : first, to preserve it in 
ourselves, or regain it by penance ; secondly, to love and 
shield it in others. 



December 7.— ST. AMBROSE, Bishop. 

mbrose was of a noble family, and was governor of 
Milan a.d. 374, when a bishop was to be chosen 
for that great see. As the Arian heretics were many and 




MtTLE ^IC*oHiAt [DECEMBER t. 



fierce, he was present to preserve order during the election. 
Though only a catechumen, it was the will of God that he 
should himself be chosen by acclamation ; and, in spite of 
his utmost resistance, he was baptized and consecrated. 




He was unwearied in every duty of a pastor, full of sym- 
pathy and charity, gentle and condescending in things in- 
different, but inflexible in matters of principle. He showed 
his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Jus- 
tina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give 
one of the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuk- 
ing and leading to penance the really great Emperor Theo- 
dosius, who in a moment of irritation had punished most 
cruelly a sedition of the inhabitants of Thessalonica. He 
was the friend and consoler of St. Monica in all her sorrows, 
and in 387 he had the joy of admitting to the Church her 
son, St. Augustine. St. Ambrose died A.D. 397, full of 
years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of God 
as one of her greatest doctors, 

Reflection. — Whence came to St. Ambrose his grandeur 
of mind, his clearness of insight, his intrepidity in main- 



to j£c EMBER 8.j 



Lives of The Saints. 



§83 



taining the faith and discipline of the Church ? Whence 
but from his contempt of the world, from his fearing God 
alone ? 

December 8. — THE FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE 
CONCEPTION. 

ON this day, so dear to every Catholic heart, we cele- 
brate, in the first place, the moment in which Al- 
mighty God showed Mary, through the distance of ages, to 
our first parents as the Virgin Mother of the divine Ee- 
deemer, the woman destined to crush the head of the ser- 
pent. And as by eternal decree she was miraculously 
exempt from all stain of original sin, and endowed with 
the richest treasures of grace and sanctity, it is meet that 




we should honor her glorious prerogatives by this special 
feast of the Immaculate Conception. We should join in 
spirit with the blessed in heaven, and rejoice with our dear 
Mother, not only for her own sake, but for ours* her chil- 



584 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 9. 



dren, who are partakers of her glory and happiness. 
Secondly, we are called upon to celebrate that ever- memor- 
able day, the 8th of December, 1854, which raised the Im- 
maculate Conception of Our Blessed Lady from a pious 
belief to the dignity of a dogma of the Infallible Church, 
causing universal joy among the faithful. 

Reflection. — Let us repeat frequently these words applied 
by the Church to the Blessed Virgin : "Thou art all fair, 
O Mary ! and there is not a spot in thee " (Cant. iv. 7). 

December 9.— ST. LEOCADIA, Virgin, Martyr. 

^^t. Leocadia was a native of Toledo, and was appre- 
}^ hended by an order of Dacian, the cruel governor 
under Diocletian in 304. Hearing of the martyrdom of St. 




Eulalia, she prayed that God would not prolong her exile, 
but unite her speedily with her holy friend in His glory. 
Her prayer was heard, and she happily expired in prison. 
Three famous churches in Toledo bear her name, and she is 



DECEMBER 10.] 



LIVES OE THE SAINTS. 



585 



honored as principal patroness of that city. In one of 
those churches most of the councils of Toledo were held. 
Her relics were kept in that church with great respect, till, 
in the incursions of the Moors, they were conveyed to 
Oviedo, and some years afterward to the abbey of St. Guis- 
lain, near Mons in Hainault. They were finally carried 
back to Toledo with great pomp, and placed in the great 
church there on the 26th of April, 1589. 

Reflection. — "Were we not blinded by the world and the 
enchantment of its follies, the near prospect of eternity, the 
uncertainty of the hour of our death, and the repeated 
precepts of Christ would produce in us the same fervent 
dispositions which they did in the primitive Christians. 



December 10.— ST. EULALIA, Virgin, Martyr. 

t. Eulalia was a native of Merida, in Spain. She 
was but twelve years old when the bloody edicts of 
Diocletian were issued. Eulalia presented herself before 
the cruel judge Dacianus, and reproached him for attempt- 
ing to destroy souls by compelling them to renounce the 
only true God. The governor commanded her to be seized, 
and at first tried to win her over by flattery, but failing in 
this, he had recourse to threats, and caused the most dread- 
ful instruments of torture to be placed before her eyes, say- 
ing to her : "AH this you shall escape if you will but touch 
a little salt and frankincense with the tip of your finger." 
Provoked at these seducing flatteries, our Saint threw down 
the idol, and trampled upon the cake which was laid for the 
sacrifice. At the judge's order, two executioners tore her 
tender sides with iron hooks, so as to leave the very bones 
bare. Next lighted torches were applied to her breasts and 
sides ; under which torment, instead of groans, nothing 
was heard from her mouth but thanksgivings. The fire at 




S86 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 11. 



length catching her hair, surrounded her head and face, 
and the Saint was stifled by the smoke and flame. 




Do we bear our crosses with the same spirit ? 

December 11 ST. DAMASUS, Pope. 

t. Damasus was born at Rome at the beginning of 
the fourth century. He was archdeacon of the 
Roman Church in 355, when Pope Liberius was ban- 
ished to Berda, and followed him into exile, but after- 
ward returned to Rome. On the death of Liberius our 
Saint was chosen to succeed him. Ursinus, a competitor 
for the high office, incited a revolt, but the holy Pope took 
only such action as was becoming to the common father of 
the faithful. Having freed the Church of this new schism, 
he turned his attention to the extirpation of Arianism in 
the West and of Apollinarianism in the East, and for this 
purpose he convened several councils. He rebuilt the 




DECEMBER 12.] LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



587 



Church of St. Laurence, which to this day is known as St. 
Laurence in Damaso ; he made many valuable presents to 
this church, and settled upon it houses and lands in its 
vicinity. He likewise drained all the springs of the Vati- 
can, which ran over the bodies that were buried there, and 
decorated the sepulchres of a great number of martyrs in 
the cemeteries, and adorned them with epitaphs in verse. 




Having sat eighteen years and two months, he died on the 
10th of December, in 384, being near fourscore years of 
age. 



December 12. — ST. VALERY, Abbot.— ST. FINIAN, 
Bishop. 

his Saint was born at Auvergne, in the sixth century, 
and in his childhood kept his father's sheep. He 
was yet young when he took the monastic habit in the 
neighboring monastery of St. Antony. Seeking the most 
perfect means of advancing in the paths of all virtues, he 



588 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 12. 



passed from this house to the more austere monastery of 
St. Germanus of Auxerre, and finally to that of Luxeu, 
where he spent many years. He travelled into Neustria, 
where he converted many infidels, and assembled certain 




fervent disciples, and laid the foundation of a monastery, 
daint Yalery went to receive the recompense of his happy 
Serseverance on the 12th of December in 622. 

St. Finian was a native of Leinster, was instructed in 
the elements of Christian virtue by the disciples of St. 
Patrick, and passed over into Wales ; but about the year 
520 he returned into Ireland. To propagate the work of 
God, our Saint established several monasteries and schools. 
St. Finian was chosen and consecrated Bishop of Clonard. 
In the love of his flock and his zeal for their salvation he 
was infirm with the infirm, and wept with those that wept. 
He healed the souls, and often also the bodies, of those 
that applied to him. He departed to Our Lord on the 12th 
of December in 552. 



DECEMBER, 13.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



589 



December 13.— ST. LUCY, Virgin, Martyr. 

^-*he mother of St. Lucy suffered four years from an 
issue of blood, and the help of man failed. St. Lucy 
reminded her mother that a woman in the Gospel had been 
healed of the same disorder. " St. Agatha," she said, 
" stands ever in the sight of Him for Whom she died. 
Only touch her sepulchre with faith, and you will be 
healed." They spent the night praying by the tomb, till, 
overcome by weariness, both fell asleep. St. Agatha ap- 
peared in vision to St. Lucy, and calling her sister, fore- 
told her mother's recovery and her own martyrdom. That 
instant the cure was effected ; and in her gratitude the 
mother allowed her daughter to distribute her wealth 
among the poor, and consecrate her virginity to Christ. 
A young man to whom she had been promised in marriage 




accused her as a Christian to the heathen ; but Our Lord, 
by a special miracle, saved from outrage this virgin whom 
He had chosen for His own. The fire kindled around her 



590 



LITTLE PICTOKIAL [DECEMBER 14. 



did her no hurt. Then the sword was plunged into her 
heart, and the promise made at the tomb of St. Agatha 
was fulfilled. 

Reflection. — The Saints had to bear sufferings and temp- 
tations greater far than yours. How did they overcome 
them ? By the love of Christ. Nourish this pure love by 
meditating on the mysteries of Christ's life ; and, above all, 
by devotion to the Holy Eucharist, which is the antidote 
against sin and the pledge of eternal life. 

December 14.— ST. NICASIUS, Archbishop, and his Com- 
panions, Martyrs. 

IN the fifth century an army of barbarians from Ger- 
many ravaging part of Gaul, plundered the city of 
Rheims. Mcasius, the holy bishop, had foretold this 




calamity to his flock. When he saw the enemy at the gates 
and in the streets, forgetting himself, and solicitous only 
for his spiritual children, he went from door to door en- 



DECEMBEK LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



591 



couraging all to patience and constancy, and awaking in 
every breast the most heroic sentiments of piety and re- 
ligion. In endeavoring to save the lives of his flock he 
exposed himself to the swords of the infidels, who, after a 
thousand insults and indignities, cut off his head. Florens, 
his deacon, and Jocond, his lector, were massacred by his 
side. His sister Eutropia, a virtuous virgin, fearing she 
might be reserved for a fate worse than death, boldly cried 
out to the infidels that it was her unalterable resolution 
rather to sacrifice her life than her faith or her integrity 
and virtue. Upon which they despatched her with their 
cutlasses. 

Reflection. — Bear patiently and sweetly bodily suffer- 
ings, and prepare for the day of trial by the courageous 
endurance of the daily crosses incident to your state. 

December 15.— ST. MESMIN. 

T. Mesmin was a native of Verdun. The inhabitants 
of that place having proved disloyal to King Clovis, 
an uncle of our Saint's, a priest named Euspice, brought 
about a reconciliation between the monarch and his sub- 
jects. Clovis, appreciating the virtues of Euspice, per- 
suaded him to take up his residence at court, and the 
servant of God took St. Mesmin along with him. While 
journeying to Orleans w T ith Clovis he noticed at about two 
leagues from the city, beyond the Loire, a solitary spot 
called Micy, which he thought well suited for a retreat. 
Having asked for and obtained the place, he with Mesmin 
and several disciples built there a monastery, of which he 
took charge. At his death, w r hich happened about two 
years after, our Saint was appointed abbot by Eusebius, 
Bishop of Orleans. During a terrible famine he fed nearly 
the whole city of Orleans with wheat from his monastery, 
without perceptibly reducing it ; he also drove an enor- 
mous serpent out of the place in which he was afterwards 




592 



LITTLE PICTORIAL (DECEMBER i£ t 



buried. Having governed his monastery ten years, he 
died as he had lived, in the odor of sanctity, on the 15th 
of December, 520. 




Reflection. — Few are called to serve God by great 
actions, but all are bound to strive after perfection in the 
ordinary actions of their daily life. 



December 16.— ST. EUSEBIUS, Bishop. 

t. Eusebius was born of a noble family, in the island 
of Sardinia, where his father is said to have died in 
prison for the Faith. The Saint's mother carried him and 
his sister, both infants, to Rome. Eusebius having been 
ordained, served the Church of Vercelli with such zeal that 
on the episcopal chair becoming vacant he was unani- 
mously chosen, by both clergy and people, to fill it. The 
holy bishop saw that the best and first means to labor 
effectually for the edification and sanctification of his 
people was to have a zealous clergy. He was at the same 
time very careful to instruct his flock, and inspire them 




DECEMBER LIVES OP 'THE SAINTS. 



5&3 



with the maxims of the Gospel. The force of the truth 
which he preached, together with his example, brought 
many sinners to a change of life. He courageously fought 
against the heretics, who had him banished to Scythopolis, 
and thence to Upper Thebais in Egypt, where he suffered 
so grievously as to win, in some of the panegyrics in his 
praise, the title of martyr. He died in the latter part of 
the year 371. 

Reflection. — The routine of every-day, commonplace 
duties is no hindrance to a free intimacy wth God. He 




will disclose His hidden ways to you in proportion as you 
follow your vocation faithfully, whether in the world or the 
cloister. 

December 17.— ST. OLYMPIAS, Widow. 

t. Olympias, the glory of the widows in the Eastern 
Church, was of a noble and wealthy family. Left 
an orphan at a tender age, she was brought up by Theo- 
dosia, sister of St. Amphilochius, a virtuous and prudent 




LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[December 1?. 



woman. Olympias insensibly reflected the virtues of this 
estimable woman. She married quite young, but her hus- 
band dying within twenty days of their wedding, she 
modestly declined any further offer for her hand, and 




resolved to consecrate her life to prayer and other good 
works, and to devote her fortune to the poor. Nectarius, 
Archbishop of Constantinople, had a high esteem for the 
saintly widow, and made her a deaconess of his church, the 
duties of which were to prepare the altar linen and to 
attend to other matters of that sort. St. Chrysostom, who 
succeeded Nectarius, had no less respect than his prede- 
cessor for Olympias, but refused to attend to the distribu- 
tion of her alms. Our Saint was one of the last to leave 
St. Chrysostom when he went into banishment on the 20th 
of June, 404. After his departure she suffered great per- 
secution, and crowned a virtuous life by a saintly death, 
about the year 410. 

Reflection. — " Lay not up to yourselves treasures on 
earth, but in heaven, where neither rust nor moth doth 
consume." 



DECEMBER LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



December 18. — ST. GATIAN, Bishop. 

C^t. Gatian came from Rome with St. Dionysius of 
Paris, about the middle of the third century, and 
preached the Faith principally at Tours in Gaul, where he 
fixed his episcopal see. The Gauls in that part were ex- 
tremely addicted to the worship of their idols. But no 
contradictions or sufferings were able to discourage or 
daunt this true apostle, and by perseverance he gained 
several to Christ. He assembled his little flock in grots 
and caves, and there celebrated the divine mysteries. He 
was obliged often to lie hid in lurking holes a long time 
together in order to escape a cruel death, with which the 
heathens frequently threatened him, and which he was 
always ready to receive with joy if he had fallen into their 
hands. Having continued his labors with unwearied zeal 




amidst frequent sufferings and dangers for near the space 
of fifty years, he died in peace, and was honored with 
miracles. 



59d 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 19. 



Reflection. — God does not ask great sacrifices from all ; 
but in His goodness He gives us all some things to re- 
nounce or to suffer for Him, and it is by our loving sub- 
mission to His will that we show ourselves to be Christians. 

December 19.— ST. NEMESION, Martyr. 

In the persecution of Decius, Nemesion, an Egyptian, 
was apprehended at Alexandria upon an indictment 
for theft. The servant of Christ easily cleared himself of 




that charge, but was immediately accused of being a Chris- 
tian, and after being scourged and tormented more than 
the thieves, was condemned to be burnt with the robbers 
and other malefactors. There stood at the same time near 
the prefect's tribunal four soldiers and another person, 
who, being Christians, boldly encouraged a confessor who 
was hanging on the rack. They were taken before the 
judge, who condemned them to be beheaded, but was as- 
tonished to see the joy with which they walked to the place 
of execution. Heron, Ater, and Isidore, all Egyptians, 



DECEMBER 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



5M 



with Dioscorus, a youth only fifteen years old, were com- 
mitted at Alexandria in the same persecution. After en- 
during the most cruel rending and disjointing of their 
limbs, they were burnt alive, with the exception of Dios- 
corus, whom the judge discharged on account of the 
tenderness of his years. 

Reflection. — Can we call to mind the fervor of the Saints 
in laboring and suffering cheerfully for God, and not feel a 
holy ardor glow in our own breasts, and our souls strongly 
affected with their heroic sentiments of virtue ? 

December 20.-ST. PHILOGONIUS, Bishop. 

£^t. Philogonius was educated for the law, and ap- 
peared at the bar with great success. He was ad- 
mired for his eloquence, but still more for his integrity and 
the sanctity of his life. This was considered a sufficient 




motive for dispensing with the canons, which require some 
time spent among the clergy before a person be advanced 
to the highest station in the Church. Philogonius was 



598 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 2l. 



placed in the see of Antioch, upon the death of Vitalis in 
318. When Arms broached his blasphemies at Alexandria 
in 318, St. Alexander condemned him, and sent the sen- 
tence in a synodal letter to St. Philogonius, who strenu- 
ously defended the Catholic faith before the assembly of 
the Council of Nice. In the storms which were raised 
against the Church, first by Maximin II. and afterward by 
Licinius, St. Philogonius deserved the title of Confessor ; 
he died in the year 322, the fifth of his episcopal dignity. 

Reflection. — St. Philogonius had so perfectly renounced 
the world, and crucified its inordinate desires in his heart, 
that he received in this life the earnest of Christ's Spirit, 
was admitted to the sacred council of the heavenly King, 
and had free access to the Almighty. A soul must here 
learn the heavenly spirit, and be well versed in the occupa- 
tions of the blessed, that hopes to reign with them here- 
after. 

December 21.— ST. THOMAS, Apostle. 

t. Thomas was one of the fishermen on the Lake of 
Galilee whom Our Lord called to be His apostles. 
By nature slow to believe, too apt to see difficulties, and to 
look at the dark side of things, he had withal a most sym- 
pathetic, loving, and courageous heart. Once when Jesus 
spoke of the mansions in His Father's house, St. Thomas, 
in his simplicity, asked : " Lord, we know not whither 
Thou goest, and how can we know the way ? " When Jesus 
turned to go toward Bethany to the grave of Lazarus, the 
desponding apostle at once feared the worst for his beloved 
Lord, yet cried out bravely to the rest: u Let us also go 
and die with Him." After the Kesurrection, incredulity 
again prevailed, and whilst the wounds of the crucifixion 
were imprinted vividly on his affectionate mind, he would 
not credit the report that Christ had indeed risen. But at 
the actual sight of the pierced hands and side, and the 




DECEMBER 22.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



599 



gentle rebuke of his Saviour, unbelief was gone forever ; 
and his faith and ours has ever triumphed in the joyous 
utterance into which he broke : " My Lord and my God ! " 




Reflection. — Oast away all disquieting doubts, and learn 
to triumph over old weaknesses as St. Thomas did, who 
"by his ignorance hath instructed the ignorant, and by 
his incredulity hath served for the faith of all ages." 

December 22.— ST. ISCHYRION, Martyr. 

Ischymon was an inferior officer who attended on a 
magistrate of a certain city in Egypt. His master 
commanded him to offer sacrifice to the idols ; and because 
he refused to commit that sacrilege, reproached him with 
the most abusive and threatening speeches. By giving way 
to passion and superstition, the officer at length worked 
himself up to such a degree of frenzy as to run a stake 
into the bowels of the meek servant of Christ, who, by his 
patient constancy, attained to the glory of martyrdom. 



600 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 23. 



Reflection. — It is not a man's condition, but virtue, that 
can make him truly great or truly happy. How mean 
soever a person's station or circumstances may be, the road 




to both is open to him ; and there is not a servant or slave 
who ought not to be enkindled with a laudable ambition of 
arriving at this greatness, which will set him on the same 
level with the rich and the most powerful. 



December 23.— ST. SERVULUS. 

ervulus was a beggar, and had been so afflicted with 
palsy from his infancy that he was never able to 
stand, sit upright, lift his hand to his mouth, or turn him- 
self from one side to another. His mother and brother 
carried him into the porch of St. Clement's Church at 
Kome, where he lived on the alms of those that passed by. 
He used to entreat devout persons to read the Holy Scrip- 
tures to him, which he heard with such attention as to 
learn them by heart. His time he consecrated by assidu- 
ously singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving to God. 




DECEMBER 24.] LIVES OP THE SAINTS. 



601 



After several years thus spent, his distemper having seized 
his vitals, he felt his end was drawing nigh. In his last 
moments he desired the poor and pilgrims, who had often 
shared in his charity, to sing sacred hymns and psalms for 
him. While he joined his voice with theirs, he on a sud- 
den cried out : ' ' Silence ! do you not hear the sweet 
melody and praise which resound in the heavens ? " Soon 
after he spoke these words he expired, and his soul was 
carried by angels into everlasting bliss, about the year 590. 

Reflection. — The whole behavior of this poor sick beggar 
loudly condemns those who, when blessed with good health 




and a plentiful fortune, neither do good works nor suffer 
the least cross with tolerable patience. 



December 24 ST. DELPHINUS, Bishop.— STS. THRA- 

SILLA and EMILIANA, Virgins. 

*T — " ittle is known of St. Delphinus before his elevation 
r* * to the episcopate. He assisted at the Council of 
Saragossa, in 330, in which the Priscillianists were con- 



602 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 24. 



demned, and also at the Council of Bordeaux, which con- 
demned the same schismatics. He baptized St. Paulerius 
in 388, and the latter, in several letters, speaks of him as 
his father and his master. St. Delphinus died on the 24th 
of December, 403. 




Sts, Thrasilla and Emiliana were aunts of St. Gregory 
the Great. They lived in their father's house as retired as 
in a monastery, far removed from the conversation of men; 
and, exciting one another to virtue by discourse and ex- 
ample, soon made considerable progress in spiritual life. 
Thrasilla was favored one night with a vision of her uncle, 
St. Felix, Pope, who showed her a seat prepared for her in 
heaven, saying : " Come ; I will receive you into this habi- 
tation of light." She fell sick of a fever the next day. 
When in her agony, with her eyes fixed on heaven, she 
cried out to those that were present : ' ' Depart ! make 
room! Jesus is coming. 1 " Soon after these words she 
breathed out her pious soul into the hands of God on the 
24th of December. A few days after she appeared to her 



DECEMBER £5.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



663 



sister Emiliana, and invited her to celebrate with her the 
Epiphany in eternal bliss. Emiliana fell sick, and died on 
the 8th of January. 

Reflection. — We may often think the austerities of the 
Saints are beyond our strength ; let us, then, imitate the 
guard they kept over their tongue. This is within the 
reach of all. 

December 25 THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST, OR 

CHRISTMAS DAY. 

^^he world had subsisted about four thousand years 
when Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, having 
taken human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and 
being made man, was born of her, for the redemption of 
mankind, at Bethlehem of Judea. Joseph and Mary had 




come up to Bethlehem to be enrolled, and, unable to find 
shelter elsewhere, they took refuge in a stable, and in this 
lowly place Jesus Christ was born. The Blessed Virgin 
wrapped the divine Infant in swaddling-clothes, and laid 



604 



LITTLE PICTORIAL ^DECEMBER &6. 



Him in the manger. While the sensual and the proud 
were asleep, an angel appeared to some poor shepherds. 
They were seized with great fear, but the heavenly mes- 
senger said to them : 4 ' Fear not : for behold I bring you 
good tidings of exceeding great joy, that shall be to all the 
people. For this day is born to you a Saviour, Who is Christ 
the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign to 
you : you shall find the Child wrapped in swaddling-clothes, 
and laid in a manger." After the departure of the angel 
the wondering shepherds said to one another : 4 ' Let us go 
over to Bethlehem, and let us see the word that is come to 
pass, which the Lord hath shown to us." They immedi- 
ately hastened thither, and found Mary and Joseph, and 
the Infant lying in the manger. Bowing down they adored 
Him, and then returned to their flocks, glorifying and 
praising God. 

Reflection. — Our Saviour sanctified our flesh by taking it 
on Himself, and with His last breath He commended us to 
the care of His Virgin Mother. Day by day He still feeds 
us at the altar with the food of incorruption — His body and 
His blood. 

December 26.— ST. STEPHEN, First Martyr. 

here is good reason to believe that St. Stephen was one 
of the seventy-two disciples of our blessed Lord. 
After the Ascension he was chosen one of the seven 
deacons. The ministry of the seven was very fruitful ; but 
Stephen especially, "full of grace and fortitude, did great 
wonders and signs among the people." Many adversaries 
rose up to dispute with him, but "they were not able to 
withstand the wisdom and the spirit that spoke." At 
length he was brought before the Sanhedrim, charged, like 
his divine Master, with blasphemy against Moses and 
against God. He boldly upbraided the chief priests with 
their hard-hearted resistance to the Holy Ghost and with 




DECEMBER 27.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



605 



the murder of the "Just One." They were stung with 
anger, and gnashed their teeth against him. But when, 
"filled with the Holy Ghost and looking up to heaven, he 
cried out, ' Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son 
of man standing at the right hand of God,' they rushed 




upon him, and dragging him forth without the city, they 
stoned him to death." 

Reflection. — If ever you are tempted to resentment, pray 
from your heart for him who has offended you. 



December 27.— ST. JOHN, Evangelist. 

t. John, the youngest of the apostles in age, was 
called to follow^ Christ on the banks of the Jordan 
during the first days of Our Lord's ministry. He was one 
of the privileged few present at the Transfiguration and the 
Agony in the garden. At the Last Supper his head rested 
on the bosom of Jesus, and in the hours of the Passion, 
when others fled or denied their Master, St. John kept his 




606 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[DECEMBER 27. 



place by the side of Jesus, and at the last stood by the 
cross with Mary. From the cross the dying Saviour be- 
queathed His Mother to the care of the faithful apostle, 




who ' 1 from that hour took her to his own ; " thus fitly, as 
St. Austin says, "to a virgin was the Virgin intrusted." 
After the Ascension, St. John lived first at Jerusalem, and 
then at Ephesus. He was thrown by Domitian into a cal- 
dron of boiling oil, and is thus reckoned a martyr, though 
miraculously preserved from hurt. Afterwards he was 
banished to the isle of Patmos, where he received the 
heavenly visions described in the Apocalypse. He died at 
a great age, in peace, at Ephesus, in the year 100. 

Reflection. — St. John is a living example of Our Lord's 
saying, 1 ' Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see 
God." 



"DECEMBER 28.] LIVES OF THE feAttfTS. 



607 



December 28.— THE HOLY INNOCENTS. 

*np^ erod, who was reigning in Judea at the time of the 
b birth of Our Saviour, having heard that the Wise 
Men had come from the East to Jerusalem in search of the 
King of the Jews, was troubled. He called together the 
chief priests, and learning that Christ was to be born in 
Bethlehem, he told the Wise Men : " When you have found 
Him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore 
Him." But God having warned them in a dream not to 
return, they went back to their homes another way. St. 
Joseph, too, was ordered in his sleep to " take the Child 
and His Mother and fly into Egypt." When Herod found 
that the Wise Men did not return, he was furious, and 
ordered that every male child in Bethlehem and its vicinity 




of the age of two and under should be slain. These inno- 
cent victims were the flowers and the first-fruits of His 
martyrs, and triumphed over the world, without having 
ever known it or experienced its dangers. 



608 



LITTLE PICTORIAL 



[DECEMBER 29. 



Reflection. — How few perhaps of these children, if they 
had lived, would have escaped the dangers of the world ! 
What snares, what sins, what miseries were they preserved 
from ! So we often lament as misfortunes many accidents 
which in the designs of Heaven are the greatest mercies. 

December 29.— ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY. 

cSt. Thomas, son of Gilbert Becket, was born in South- 
wark, England, a.d. 1117. When a youth he was 
attached to the household of Theobald, Archbishop of Can- 




terbury, who sent him to Paris and Bologna to study law. 
He became Archdeacon of Canterbury, then Lord High 
Chancellor of England ; and in 1160, when Archbishop 
Theobald died, the king insisted on the consecration of St. 
Thomas in his stead. St. Thomas refused, warning the 
king that from that hour their friendship would be broken. 
In the end he yielded, and was consecrated. The conflict 
at once broke out ; St. Thomas resisted the royal customs, 



DECEMBER 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



609 



which violated the liberties of the Church and the laws of 
the realm. After six years of contention, partly spent in 
exile, St. Thomas, with full foresight of martyrdom before 
him, returned as a good shepherd to his Church. On the 
29th of December, 1170, just as vespers were beginning, 
four knights broke into the cathedral, crying : ' 4 Where is 
the archbishop ? where is the traitor ? " The monks fled, 
and St. Thomas might easily have escaped. But he ad- 
vanced, saying : ' ' Here I am — no traitor, but archbishop. 
What seek you ? " " Your life," they cried. " Gladly do I 
give it," was the reply ; and bowing his head, the invinci- 
ble martyr was hacked and hewn till his soul went to God. 
Six months later Henry II. submitted to be publicly 
scourged at the Saint's shrine, and restored to the Church 
her full rights. 

Reflection.— ' ' Learn from St. Thomas," says Father 
Faber, "to fight the good fight even to the shedding of 
blood, or., to what men find harder, the shedding of their 
good name by pouring it out to waste on the earth." 

December 30.— ST. SABINUS, Bishop, and his 
Companions, Martyrs. 

he cruel edicts of Diocletian and Maximin against the 
Christians being published in the year 303, Sabinus, 
Bishop of Assisium, and several of his clergy, were appre- 
hended and kept in custody till Venustianus, the Governor 
of Etruria and Umbria, came thither. Upon his arrival in 
that city he caused the hands of Sabinus, who had made a 
glorious confession of his Faith before him, to be cut off ; 
and his two deacons, Marcellus and Exuperantius, to be 
scourged, beaten with clubs, and torn with iron nails, under 
which torments they both expired. Sabinus is said to 
have cured a blind boy, and a weakness in the eyes of 
Venustianus himself, who was thereupon converted, and 
afterward beheaded for the Faith. Lucius, his successor, 



610 



LITTLE PICTORIAL [DECEMBER 31. 



commanded Sabinus to be beaten to death with clubs at 
Spoleto. The martyr was buried a mile from that city, 
but his relics have been since translated to Faenza. 




Reflection. — How powerfully do the martyrs cry out to 
us by their example, exhorting us to despise a false and 
wicked world ! 



December 31. — ST. SYLVESTER, Pope. 

ylvester was born in Rome toward the close of the 
third century. He was a young priest when the 
persecution of the Christians broke out under the tyrant 
Diocletian. Idols were erected at the corners of the streets, 
in the market-places, and over the public fountains, so that 
it was scarcely possible for a Christian to go abroad without 
being put to the test of offering sacrifice, with the alterna- 
tive of apostasy or death. During this fiery trial, Sylvester 
strengthened the confessors and martyrs, God preserving 
his life from many dangers. In 312 a new era set in. 
Constantine, having triumphed under the " standard of the 




DECEMBER 31.] LIV#ES OF THE SAINTS. 



611 



Cross," declared himself the protector of the Christians, 
and built them splendid churches. At this juncture Syl- 
vester was elected to the chair of Peter, and was thus the 
first of the Koman Pontiffs to rule the flock of Christ in 
security and peace. He profited by these blessings to renew 
the discipline of the Church, and in two great Councils 
confirmed her sacred truths. In the Council of Aries he 
condemned the schism of the Donatists ; and in that of 
Nicsea, the first general Council of the Church, he dealt 
Arianism its death-blow by declaring that Jesus Christ is 
the true and very God. Sylvester died a.d. 335. 




Reflection. — Never forget to thank God daily for having 
made you a member of His undying Church, and grow 
daily in your attachment, devotion, and loyalty to the Vicar 
of Christ. 



LIVES OF THE AMERICAN SAINTS 



Placed in the Proper for the United States 

AT THE SPECIAL PETITION OP 

THE THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE. 



ST. PHILIP OF JESUS, Martyr, Patron of the City of 
Mexico. 

hilip de las Casas was born in the city of Mexico, 
where his parents settled after setting out for the 
New World from Illescas in Spain. They were earnest in 
all their religious duties and brought up their family piously, 
two sons entering the Augustinian Order, . one to die by the 
hands of the heathen . Philip at first showed little care for 
the pious teaching of his parents and the example of his 
brothers, but at last he, too, resolved to forsake the world, 
and entered the Eeformed Franciscan Convent of Santa 
Barbara at Pueblo. He was not yet weaned from the world 
and its vanities, and soon left the novitiate. Grieved at 
the inconstancy of his son, Alonso de las Casas sent him to 
the Philippine Islands with a large stock of goods and 
money to make purchases. In vain did Philip seek to sat- 
isfy his heart with pleasure. He could not but feel that 
God called him to a religious life. Gaining courage by 

613 




614 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



prayer, he entered the Franciscan Convent of Our Lady of 
the Angels at Manila, and persevered, taking his vows in 
1594. His novitiate had produced a great spirit of poverty, 
obedience, and prayer, and he sought by austerity to atone 
for the errors of his youth. As infirmarian, Brother Philip 
of Jesus beheld Our Lord in the person of the sick, and at- 
tended them with holy care. The richest cargo that he 
could have sent to Mexico would not have gratified his 
pious father as much as the tidings that Philip was a pro- 
fessed friar. Alonso de las Casas obtained from the Com- 
missary of the Order directions that Philip should bd sent 
to Mexico. He embarked on the St. Philip in July, 1596, 
with other religious. Storms drove the vessel to the coast 
of Japan, and it was wrecked while endeavoring to enter a 
port. Amid the storm Philip saw over Japan a white cross, 
in the shape used in that country, which after a time be- 
came blood-red, and remained so for some time. It was 
an omen of his coming victory. The commander of the 
vessel sent our Saint and two other religious to the emperor 
to solicit permission to continue their voyage, but they 
could not obtain an audience. He then proceeded to Meaco, 
to a house of his Order, to seek the influence of the Fathers 
there ; but the pilot of the vessel by idle boasts had excited 
the emperor's fears of the Christians, and the heathen ruler 
resolved to exterminate the Catholic missionaries. In 
December, officers seized a number of the Franciscan 
Fathers, three Jesuits, and several of their young pupils. 
St. Philip was one of those arrested while they were in the 
choir singing the Office. Philip bore with heroic patience 
the insults of the rabble who assailed the martyrs on their 
way to prison, and heard with holy joy that sentence of 
death had been passed on them all. His left ear was cut 
off, and he offered this first-fruits of his blood to God for 
the salvation of that heathen land. The martyrs were led 
through the streets of several towns with inscriptions de- 
claring the cause of their death. They at last reached 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



615 



Nangasaki, where crosses had been erected on a high 
hill near the bay. When St. Philip was led to that on 
which he was to die, he knelt down and clasped it, exclaim- 
ing : "O happy ship ! O happy galleon for Philip, lost for 
my gain ! Loss — no loss for me, but the greatest of all 
gain ! " He was bound to the cross, but the rest under him 
gave way, so that he was strangled by the cords. While 
repeating the holy name of Jesus he was the first of the 
happy band to receive the death-stroke, a lance being driven 
across through his body to the right shoulder, then another 
to the left, a third stroke being given to assure his death. 
The Spanish and Japanese Christians who witnessed his 
triumph caught his blood in their hats and in cloths to 
preserve as relics. Miracles attested the power before 
God of these first martyrs of Japan. Pope Urban VIII. 
granted permission to say an Office and Mass in their 
honor, and Pope Pius IX. formally canonized them. The 
devotion to St. Philip of Jesus in his native city and 
throughout Mexico has always been very great. A church 
and a convent of Capuchin nuns are dedicated to him. His 
feast was in Spanish times kept with great solemnity in 
New Mexico, Texas, and California, and a settlement in 
Arizona bore his name. 

St. Philip died at the age of twenty-five. He is an ex- 
ample to encourage those who falter in the path of God's 
service ; his prayers will aid those who are tempted, and 
enable them to acquire strength to recover lost ground 
and go on with renewed courage in the narrow way of the 
cross. His feast is celebrated February 5th. 

ST. TURRIBiUS, Archbishop of Lima. 

urribius Alphonsus Mogrobejo, whose feast the 
Church honors on April 27th, was born on the 6th of 
November, 1538, at Mayorga in the kingdom of Leon 
in Spain. Brought up in a pious family where devotion 



616 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



was hereditary, his youth was a model to all who knew 
him. A tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin and a 
love of the poor marked this boy. He recited the Rosary 
and the Little Office every day, and fasted every Saturday 
in honor of the Mother of God. As a schoolboy he gave 
away his own food to relieve the poor. His life as a stu- 
dent at Valladolid and Salamanca showed no relaxation 
from his early spirit of prayer. All his leisure was given to 
devotion or to works of charity. His austerities were great, 
and he frequently made long pilgrimages on foot. The 
fame of Turribius as a master of canon and civil law soon 
reached the ears of King Philip II. , who made him judge 
at Granada. That monarch marked the exalted virtue and 
ability of Mogrobejo. About that time the see of Lima, in 
Peru, fell vacant, and among those proposed Philip found 
no one who seemed better endowed than our Saint with 
all the qualities that were required at that city, where much 
was to be done for religion. He sent to Rome the name of 
the holy judge, and the Sovereign Pontiff confirmed his 
choice. Turribius in vain sought to avoid the honor, and 
wrote a long treatise, which he forwarded to Rome, to show 
how irregular it was to appoint a layman to such a position. 
The Pope, in reply, directed him to prepare to receive Holy 
Orders and be consecrated. King Philip was equally deaf 
to his appeals. Yielding at last by direction of his con- 
fessor, he prepared by a long retreat to receive minor 
orders and the subdeaconship and deaconship. Then he 
was ordained priest and consecrated. He arrived at Lima in 
1587, and entered on his duties. All was soon edification 
and order in his episcopal city. A model of all virtue him- 
self, he confessed daily and prepared for Mass by long 
meditation. The influence of the holy man was soon felt. 
St. Turribius then began a visitation of his vast diocese, 
which he traversed three times, his first visitation lasting 
seven years and his second four. He held provincial 
councils, framing decrees of such wisdom that his regula- 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



617 



tions were adopted in many countries. St. Turribius 
preached, catechized, and confirmed far and wide ; he held 
diocesan synods, and encouraged his bishops to do the 
same. Almost his entire revenues were bestowed on his 
creditors, as he styled the poor, and he bore with intrepid 
patience the vexatious opposition raised to many of his 
reforms, maintaining the liberties of the Church with apos- 
tolical courage. While discharging with zeal his duties of 
priest and bishop, he was seized with a fatal illness during 
his third visitation, and died on the 23d of March in the 
year 1666, at Santa, exclaiming, as he received the sacred 
Viaticum : "I rejoiced in the things that were said to me : 
i We shall go into the house of the Lord.' " 

His holy, austere, and devoted life had made the people 
regard him as a saint and a constant benefactor. They re- 
garded him now as their patron in heaven, and miracles 
rewarded their faith. The proofs of his holy life and of 
the favors granted through his intercession induced Pope 
Innocent XI. to beatify him, and he was canonized by Pope 
Benedict XIII. in the year 1726. 

Saint Turribius was a model for all states — as a holy 
youth, as a pious and zealous layman, as a great and ex- 
emplary bishop. 

ST. FRANCIS SOLANO. 

he diocese of Cordova, in Spain, was the birthplace of 
this Saint, who won many thousands of souls to God. 
From his earliest years he was characterized by a modest 
behavior, prudent silence, and edifying meekness. While 
still very young he was always able to effect a reconcilia- 
tion between the most bitter enemies. Once, when he came 
upon two Spaniards who were engaged in deadly strife, he 
threw himself between them, and kneeling down prayed 
with so much fervor that the fierce combatants sheathed 
their daggers and became reconciled to one another. 
His education was intrusted to the Jesuit Fathers, but 



618 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



his desire to follow the poor and humble Jesns in perfect 
poverty and humility induced him to enter the Order of 
St. Francis. Soon he excelled every one in the house in 
humility, obedience, fervor in prayer, and self-denial. 
Sometimes he would pass the entire night on his knees be- 
fore the tabernacle. If he saw a religious zealous for God's 
honor and love, he would say to him : " Brother, let us see 
which of us can show Jesus more proofs of love, fervor, 
and self-denial during this week. " 

After his ordination he preached the word of God in 
simple, unadorned language, but with so much fervor and 
heartfelt emotion, that those among his numerous audi- 
ence who had been travelling on the broad road of vice 
abandoned it, and entered upon the narrow path of a 
virtuous life. 

He was no less zealous in deed than in word ; for when 
the pestilence was raging in Granada he was untiring and 
fearless in his service to the plague-stricken inhabitants, 
tending the sick and dying with such assiduous and, as it 
were, maternal care, that the wondering people praised 
God for the visible protection He manifested towards His 
servant. 

In the year 1589 he sailed for South America to preach 
the Gospel to the Indians in Peru. On the same vessel 
with him were six hundred negro slaves. While still at 
some distance from shore the ship struck a ledge of rocks, 
and the danger of drowning was imminent. 

The captain hurried the officers and principal passengers 
into the only boat there was, and tried to induce the mis- 
sionary to accompany them ; but he refused to do so in 
these terms : ' ' Sir, you have done your duty ; now I shall 
do mine. I stay here." He then consoled the remaining 
passengers, directing their thoughts to heaven. He knelt 
down with them and prayed fervently, exhorting those who 
had been baptized, instructing those who were not, and 
comforting all. Meanwhile the vessel was sinking, and the 



lives of the saints. 



619 



passengers trembled with fear ; but not so the zealous mis- 
sionary. He alone kept up his hope in God's mercy. Thus 
three dreadful days were passed, until at last the captain 
came with the life-boat and all were taken off in safety. 

The missionary did not confine his ministry to Lima. 
He visited the forests and deserts inhabited by the Indians, 
who were cruel and bloodthirsty by nature, and who hated 
the Spaniards because they had oftentimes been cruelly 
treated by them. 

But God protected His fearless servant, to whom He had 
given the gifts of eloquence and power over wild beasts. 
Lions, tigers, and snakes obeyed him, and the birds perched 
on his shoulders, singing with him the praises of God. By 
degrees he won the trust of the Indians, who marvelled at 
his kindness ; they listened to his instruction, allowed him 
to baptize them, and followed him as grateful children fol- 
low their father. 

In this way nine thousand Indians were converted, and 
everything was in the most promising condition when the 
missionary was recalled by an order from his Superior to 
Lima, which at that time was like the godless city of 
Mnive. Francis preached with great effect to the hard- 
ened sinners. He carried his mission everywhere — in the 
public streets, into the shameless theatres and gambling- 
dens, where, cross in hand, he frightened the evil-doers by 
the might of his words, which echoed like the trumpet- 
sounds of the last judgment. The result of his labors was 
that the whole city became converted. 

He wrought many miracles on the sick and sorrowful, 
but was in himself the greatest miracle of all. Ever busy, 
humble, joyful, and never uttering a single useless word, 
in his leisure time he composed songs to the Christ-child 
and His blessed Mother, and sung them, to the accompani- 
ment of his violin, so sweetly that his hearers were en- 
raptured. 

His love of his neighbor was unbounded. He never 



620 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



thought evil of any one, and put a good construction on 
every action, even when persecuted, calumniated, and held 
in suspicion by his religious brethren. 

The proverb, u As our life is, so shall be our death," was 
fulfilled in Francis' case. In his last painful sickness he 
prayed thus: "O Jesus! how do I deserve such grace! 
Thou wert nailed to the cross, and I am served by my 
brethren ; Thou wert stripped of Thy clothes, and I am 
well covered ; Thou didst receive blows, and I only receive 
good things, O my God." 

His last words were, " God be praised ! " after uttering 
which his soul departed this earth on July 14, 1610. His 
remains were honored by a grand funeral, and he was de- 
clared Blessed by Pope Clement X. in 1675, and canonized 
by Benedict XIII. in 1726. St. Francis 7 feast is held July 
24th. 



INDEX. 



A 

Advent 9 

All-Saints 537 

All-Souls 537 

The Annunciation 189 

The Ascension 28 

The Assumption 428 

Ash Wednesday 11 

Sts. Abraham and Mary 168 

Sts. Adrian and Eubulus 150 

St. Aelred 56 

St. Agapetus 433 

St. Agatha 99 

St. Agnes 70 

St. Albinus 143 

St. Alexius 383 

St. Aloysius Gonzaga 340 

St. Alphonsus Liguori 409 

St. Ambrose 581 

St. Andrew, Apostle 573 

St. Andrew Avellino 548 

St.Anicetus 228 

St. Anne 398 

St. Anselm 233 

St. Antoninus 266 

St. Antony 64 

St. Antony of Padua 328 

St. Apollinaris, Apologist 50 

St, Apollinaris, Martyr 394 

St. Apollonia and the Martyrs 

of Alexandria 107 

St. Apollonius 229 

St. Athansius 252 

St. Augustine 294 

St. Augustine of Hippo 450 

St. Avitus 334 

B 

Blood, The Most Precious 14 

St. Bademus 217 

St. Barachisius 196 

St. Barbara 578 

St. Barbatus 123 

St. Barnabas 325 

St. Bartholomew 444 

St. Basil the Great 329 



St. Basilissa 51 

St. Bathildes 85 

Ven. Bede 297 

St. Benedict 182 

St. Benedict of Anian 112 

St. Benezet 223 

St. Benjamin 199 

St. Bernard 437 

St. Bernardine of Siena 283 

St. Bertha 361 

St. Bertille 542 

St. Bibiana 575 

St. Blase 96 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The An- 
nunciation of 189 

Blessed Virgin Mary, the As- 
sumption of 428 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Im- 
maculate Conception of. .. 583 
Blessed Virgin Mary, The Na- 
tivity of 469 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Pres- 
entation of 562 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Puri- 

.fication of 94 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The 

Seven Dolors of 15 

Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sun- 
day in the Octave of the 

Nativity of 470 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Visi- 
tation of 358 

Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, 492 

St. Bonaventure 378 

St. Boniface 312 

St. Bridgid 88 

St. Bridget of Sweden. 509 

St. Bruno 506 

C 

Candlemas-day 94 

Christmas 603 

The Circumcision of Our Lord. 37 

Corpus Christi 33 

Cross, The Holy, Discovery of 254 
Cross, The Holy, Exaltation 
of 479 



621 



iftDEX. 



Crown of Thorns, The Holy. . . 17 

St. Cajetan 416 

St. Callistus 516 

St. Camillus of Lellis 385 

St. Canutus 67 

St. Casimir 148 

St. Catherine of Alexandria. . . 567 

St. Catherine of Genoa 480 

St. Catherine of Ricci 114 

St. Catherine of Siena 249 

St. Catherine of Sweden 183 

St. Cecilia 564 

St. Celestine 209 

St. Celsus 400 

St. Charles Borromeo 541 

St. Christina 395 

St. Clare 424 

St. Claude 317 

St. Clement of Rome 565 

Sts. Cletus and Marcellinus... 241 

St, Clotilda 309 

Sty Cloud 467 

St. Colette 151 

'St. Columba, or Columkille... . 321 

Sts. Cosmas and Damian 496 

St. Crescentia 331 

Sts. Crispin and Crispinian 529 

St. Cunegundes 146 

St. Cyprian 481 

Sts. Cyprian and Justina, Mar- 
tyrs 494 

St. Cyriacus and his Compan- 
ions 418 

St. Cyril 300 

St. Cyril of Alexandria 82 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem 175 

D 

St. Damasus 586 

St. Damian 496 

St. David 142 

St. Delphinus 601 

St. Didacus 552 

St. Dion y si a 275 

St. Dionysiusand his Compan- 
ions 510 

St. Dominic. 412 

Sts. Donatian and Rogatian. . . 290 
St. Dorothy 102 

E 

Easter Sunday 26 

Epiphany of Our Lord 47 

St. Edmund of Canterbury 556 

St. Edward the Confessor 515 

Eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa 226 

St. Eleutherius 466 

St. Eligius 574 

St. Elizabeth of Hungary 560 

St. Elizabeth of Portugal 367 



St. Elphege 230 

St. Emiliana 601 

St. Encraiis.. 226 

St. Ephrem 369 

St. Epiphanius 269 

St. Etheldreda 344 

St. Eubulus 150 

St. Eucherius... 125 

St. ICugenius 376 

St. Eulalia 585 

St. Eulogius 160 

St. Eulogius, Patriarch 477 

St. Euphrasia 163 

St. Eusebius 427 

St. Eusebius. Bishop 592 

St. Eustachius and his Com- 
panions 486 

St. Evaristus 530 

F 

The Five Wounds of Our Lord 13 

The Forty Hours' Devotion.. . . 10 

Sts. Faustinus and Jo vita 116 

St. Felicianus 320 

St. Felicitas and her Seven 

Sons 371 

St. Felix I 302 

St. Felix of Valois 561 

St. Fiaker 455 

St. Fidelis 238 

St. Finbarr 493 

St, Finian 587 

St. Firmin 493 

St. Flavian 120 

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 158 

St. Frances of Rome 156 

St. Francis of Assisi 504 

St. Francis Borgia. 511 

St. Francis Caracciolo 311 

St. Francis of Paula 203 

St. Francis of Sales 83 

St. Francis Solano 617 

St. Francis Xavier 577 

St. Frumentius 531 

St. Fulgentius 38 

G 

Guardian Angels 502 

Good Friday 22 

St. Gal, Bishop 356 

St. Gall, Abbot 519 

St. Gatian 595 

St. Genevieve 41 

St. George 237 

St. Gerard 503 

St. Germanus, Bishop of Au- 

xerre 403 

St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris 298 

St. Gertrude 555 

St. Giles 459 

St, Goar 364 



INDEX. 



623 



St. Gontran 195 

St. Gregory the Great 162 

St. Gregory, Bishop 44 

St. Gregory Nazianzen 265 

St. Gregory VII 291 

St. Gregory Thaumaturgus 557 

St. Guy of Anderlecht 476 

H 

Holy Cross, The Discovery of 

the 254 

Holy Cross, The Exaltation of 

the 479 

Holy Innocents 607 

Holy Relics, Feast of the 546 

Holy Saturday 24 

St. Hedwige 520 

St. Hegesippus 211 

St. Helena *33 

St. Heliodorus 359 

St. Henry 380 

B. Herman Joseph of Steinfeld 212 

St. Hermenegild 222 

St. Hilarion... , 526 

St. Hilary of Poitiers 59 

St. Honoratus 62 

St. Hospitius 284 

St. Hubert 540 

St. Hugh 201 

St. Hugh of Cluny 248 

St. Hyacinth 430 

I 

The Immaculate Conception.. 583 

St. Ignatius, Martyr .. . 92 

St. Ignatius of Loyola 405 

St. Irenseus 351 

St. Ischyrion 599 

St. Isidore 206 

J 

St. James, Apostle 396 

St. James, Bishop 373 

St. James of La Marca of An- 

cona 571 

St. Jane Frances de Chantal . . 439 

St. Jane of Valois 98 

St. Januarius 485 

The Japanese Martyrs 101 

St. Jerome 499 

St. Jerome Emiliani 389 

St. John the Almoner 215 

St. John the Baptist 345 

St. John the Baptist, Behead- 
ing of 451 

B. John of Britto 118 

St. John Cantius 523 

St. John Chrysostom 80 

St. John Climacus 198 



St. John of the Cross 566 

St. John of Egypt 193 

St. John, Evangelist 605 

St. John before the Latin Gate 260 

St. John Francis Regis 332 

St. John of God 155 

St. John Gual bert 375 

St. John of Matha 106 

St. John Nepomucen 276 

St. John the Silent 271 

St. John of St. Fagondez 326 

Sts. John and Paul, Martyrs.. 349 
Sts. Jonas, Barachisius, and 

their Companions . . 196 

St. Joseph 177 

St. Joseph Calasanctius 449 

St, Jude 532 

St. Julia 288 

St. Juliana Falconieri 337 

Sts. Julian and Basilissa 51 

St. Julius 220 

St. Justin 304 

St. Justina 494 

L 

St. Ladislas 350 

St. Lambert 482 

St. Laurence, Martyr 421 

St. Laurence Justinian 465 

St. Laurence O'Toole 554 

St. Leander. . 138 

St. Leo the Great 219 

St. Leocadia 584 

St. Leonard 543 

St. Leonides 235 

St. Liberatus and others 431 

St. Louis, Bishop 435 

St. Louis, King 446 

St. Louis Bertrand 510 

St. Lucian 48 

St. Lucy 589 

St. Ludger 191 

St. Luke 521 

St. Lupicinus 139 

M 

Maundy Thursday 20 

The Most Holy Crown of 

Thorns 17 

The Most Precious Blood 14 

Dedication of St. Mary ad 

Nives 413 

St. Macarius of Alexandria ... 40 

St. Magloire 527 

St. Malachi 539 

St. Mammertus 268 

St. Marcel la 86 

St. Marcellinus, Bishop 232 

St. Marcellinus, Pope 241 

St. Marcellus 534 



624 



INDEX. 



Sts. Marcus and Marcellianus.. 335 

St. Margaret, Martyr 388 

B. Margaret Mary Alacoque.. 520 

St. Margaret of Scotland 323 

St. Mark, Evangelist 240 

St. Mark, Pope 508 

St. Martha 402 

St. Martin, Pope 550 

St. Martin of Tours 549 

The Martyrs of Alexandria ... 107 

The Martyrs of Japan 101 

The Martyrs of Lyons 307 

The Martyrs of Sebaste 158 

The Martyrs of Saragossa 226 

St. Mary of Egypt 214 

St. Mary Magdalen 392 

St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi. . . 296 

St. Matthew 488 

St. Matthias 133 

St. Maud 165 

St. Maximus 569 

St. Medard 318 

St. Mello 526 

St. Mesmin 591 

St. Michael 498 

St. Michael, The Apparition of 263 

St. Modestus 331 

St. Monica 257 

N 

The Nativity of the Blessed 

Virgin 469 

St. Narcissus 533 

Sts. Nazarius and Celsus 400 

St. Nemesion 596 

St. Nicasius and his Compan- 
ions 590 

St. Nicholas of Bari 580 

St. Nicholas of Tolentino 473 

St. Norbert 314 

O 

St. Odoof Cluny 559 

St. Olympias 592 

St. Omer 471 

St. Onesimus 119 

St. Oswald 141 

P 

Palm Sunday 19 

The Purification 94 

The Presentation of the Blessed 

Virgin 562 

St. Pachomius 273 

St. Palladius 365 

St. Pamphilus 305 

St. Pantaenus 366 

St. Pantaleon ... 399 

St. Paphnutius 475 



St. Paschal Baylon 278 

St. Paternus 225 

St. Patrick 170 

St. Paul 355 

St. Paul, The Conversion of. . . 77 

St. Paul of the Cross 244 

St. Paul, the First Hermit .... 61 

St. Paul, Martyr 349 

St. Paulinus of Nola 342 

St. Perpetuus 213 

St. Peter, Apostle 353 

St. Peter's Chains 406 

St. Peter's Chair at Antioch. . . 128 

St. Peter's Chair at Rome 65 

St. Peter of Alcantara 522 

St. Peter of Alexandria 568 

St. Peter Celestine 281 

B.Peter CI aver 472 

St. Peter Damian 130 

B. Peter Favre 419 

St. Peter of Luxemburg 362 

St. Peter, Martyr 246 

Sts. Peter and Dionysia 275 

St. Petronilla 303 

St. Philip Benizi 442 

St. Philip Neri 293 

St. Philip of Jesus 613 

Sts. Philip and James 250 

St. Philogonius 597 

St. Pius V 258 

St. Placid 505 

St. Poly carp 79 

St. Porphyry.... 136 

St. Pothinus and other Martyrs 

of Lyons 307 

Sts. Primus and Felicianus 320 

St. Prosper of Aquitaine 347 

Q 

Quinquagesima Sunday 10 

St. Quintin 536 

R 

Relics, Feast of the Holy 546 

St. Radegundes 425 

St. Raymund Nonnatus 456 

St. Raymund of Pennafort 73 

St. Remigius 500 

St. Richard of Chichester 204 

St. Robert 316 

St. Rogatian 290 

St. Romanus 420 

Sts. Romanus and Lupicinus .. 139 

St. Romuald 104 

St. Rose of Lima 453 

St. Rosalia . . 463 

S 

The Seven Dolors of the 

Blessed Virgin 15 

St. Sabas 579 



INDEX. 



625 



St. Sabinus and his Compan- 



ions 609 

St. Saturninus 572 

St. Scholastica 109 

St. Sebastian 69 

St. Seraphia 462 

St. Serenus 131 

St. Severianus 127 

St. Severinus Ill 

St. Servulus 600 

St. Silverius... 338 

St. Simeon 121 

St. Simeon Stylites 45 

St. Simon, Infant Martyr 187 

St. Simon Stock 381 

Sts. Simon and Jude 532 

St. Simplicius 144 

St. Soter 235 

St. Stanislas, Bishop and Mar- 
tyr 261 

St. Stanislas Kostka 551 

St. Stephen, First Martyr 604 

St. Stephen, Finding of the 

Relics of 410 

St. Stephen, King 460 

St. Stephen, Pope 408 

St. Susanna 422 

St. Sylvester 610 

St. Symphorian 441 

T 

The Transfiguration 415 

Trinity Sunday 31 

St. Tarachus and his Compan- 
ions 513 

St. Tarasius 134 

St. Teresa 517 

The Theban Legion 489 

St. Thecla 490 

St. Theodore Tyro 546 

St. Theodoret , 526 

St. Theodosius 54 

St. Thomas, Apostle 598 

St. Thomas Aquinas 153 1 



St. Thomas of Canterbury .... 608 

St. Thomas of Villanova 484 

Sts. Thrasilla and Emiliana. . . 601 

Sts. Tiburtius and Susanna.. . . 422 

St. Timothy 75 

St. Titus 43 

St. Turribius 615 

U 

St. Ursula 524 

V 

The Visitation 358 

St. Valentine 115 

St. Valery 587 

St. Venantius 280 

St. Veronica 58 

St. Victor 390 

St. Victorian and others 185 

St. Vincent 72 

St. Vincent Ferrer 208 

St. Vincent of Paul 387 

St. Vitalis 245 

Sts. Vitus, Crescentia, and 

Modestus 331 

W 

Whit-Sunday 29 

St. Wenceslas 497 

St. Wilfrid 514 

St, William 53 

St. William of Monte- Vergine. 347 

St. Willibrord 545 

St.Wulfran 180 

Y 

St. Yvo 285 

Z 

St. Zachary 167 

St. Zephyrinus 447 

St. Zita 243 



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Burlington. 1 have no doubt that a work so comprehensive in its 
scope, and written by so experienced and zealous a prelate, 
will meet with a large patronage from the faithful. 1 ' 

Most Rev. P. J. RYAN, Archbishop of Philadel- 
phia : " It gives me great pleasure to have my name added to those 
of the prelates who recommend the Bishop of Burlington's new work, 
* Christ on the Altar. 1 The excellent manner in which you 
have brought out the book, the clear type and popular illus- 
trations, added to its intrinsic merit, will, no doubt, secure 
for it a very large circulation. 11 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

THE LABORS OF THE APOSTLES: 

Their Teaching of the Nations. 

12M0, Cloth, net, $1.00. 

" Its charm as well as its value is in the simplicity of the narrative. 
It is not controversial; instead of offending the non-Catholic reader, 
it is designed to attract him to its reading, to please him as he reads, 
and to convince him when he has finished. ,1 — New World. 



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THE SECRET OF SANCTITY, 

According to St. Francis de Sales and Father Crasset, 
SJ. Translated from the French by 
Miss Ella McMahon. 

Second Edition. 1 2mo, Cloth, net, $1.00. 

A collection of the safest rules given by the Saints for the better 
performance of the double prayer of the heart and of acts. These 
rules are taken principally from that great doctor of piety, St. Francis 
de Sales, and Father Crasset, S.J. 

" This volume presents an excellent guide to the sanctification of 
our actions, by two distinguished spiritual directors. 1 ' — Freeman's 
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" Means whereby one's daily actions may be sanctified, aids to per- 
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appeals to both the mind and the heart.'''' — A ve Maria, 

"... In fact, everything that enters into the daily life to make Chris- 
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THE DEVOUT YEAR: 

SHORT MEDITATIONS 

For Advent, Christmas, March, Lent, Easter, May, Ascension to 
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By Rev. R. K. CLARKE, S.J. 
1 6mo, Cloth, net, 60 cents. 

These admirable little books of meditation, zvhich have hitherto 
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HELP FOR THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY. 

Prayers and Devotions in aid of the Suffering Souls. 
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" The Rev. F. B. Luebbermann has prepared an excellent little 
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MANUAL OF INDULGENCED PRAYERS. 

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daily use by Rev. Bonaventura Hammer, O.S.F. (Prov. 
S. Joan. Bapt.) Small 32mo, 351 pages, 40 cents to $2.00. 

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THE CATHO LIC FAMIL Y LIBRARY. 

The Christian Father; 

What he should be, and what he should do. With Prayers 

suitable to his condition. From the German by Rev. 

L. A. Lambert, LL.D. With an Introduction by Rt Rev' 

S. V. Ryan, D.D., CM., Bishop of Buffalo. 

Paper 25 cents; per hundred, $1500 

Maroquette 35 - - - 21 . 00 

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Alsatian Morocco $1.25 



APPROBATIONS. 

" .... I have looked through them, and am greatly pleased 
with the solid and edifying instruction they convey in simplest 
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families in this country. 

"In token of my appreciation, I request you to forward me 
a thousand (1000) copies 
of each of the two former books and 

five hundred (500 ) 
of the third, for distribution among my people. 

"Yours faithfully in Christ, 

^ JAMES VINCENT CLEARY, 
Bis ho p of Kingsto?i . ' ' 

From the Pastoral Letter of Right Rev. M. J. O'FARRELL, D,D,, 
Bishop of Trenton, 

" For parents we recommend 1 The Christian Father ' and 
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duties to their children.' 1 — Pastoral^ 1883. 



". . . What is said in it, and said so well, on ' Mixed Marriages, 1 - 
entitles it to a place in every Catholic household. 

T. MULLEN, Bishop of Erie." 



"... Had I the means I would make a present of ' The 
Christian Father' to every Catholic father in the diocese. 

4« S. V. RYAN, Bishop of Buffalo:" 



.Father Lambert has done a good work in bringing this 
book before our people in English. Please send me a dozen copies. 

*J< P. J. BALTES, Bishop of A It any 



"... It is a very useful work. It should be in the hands of 
every Christian father, as ' The Christian Mother ' should be 
carefully read by every mother who loves her children. 

►J« F. S. CHATARD, Bishop of Vincennesr 



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THE CATHOLIC FAMILY LIBRARY. 

The Christian Mother; 

The Education of her Children, and her Prayer. Translated 
by a Father of the Society of Jesus. With an Introduction 
by His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons. 

Paper 25 cents ; per hundred, $15.00 

Maroquette 35 44 44 44 21.00 

Cloth 50 44 4 4 4 4 30.00 

Persian Calf $1.35 



APPROBATIONS. 
From the Pastoral Letter of Right Rev, S. V, RYAN, D,D,, Bishop of Buffalo, 

" ' The Christian Mother ' I would like to see in the hands of all 

who have entered or propose to enter the holy state of wedlock. 1 ' — 
Pastoral, Feb. 20, 1882. 



14 ... I had to stop the reading- from time to time to utter a strong- 
prayer to our good God that every mother could have a copy of 
the book. 

*f- JOHN JOSEPH LYNCH, Archbishop of Toronto:" 



"... I do not know of any new book I have seen of late years cal- 
culated to do more efficient and widespread good through the 
couniry. I wish that every mother in the land would study it 
and profit by it. 

^ WILLIAM HENRY ELDER, 

Archbishop of Cincinnati.' 1 " 



44 Could every mother be induced to put in practice the lessons of 
this book, what blessings would thence derive to themselves, to their 
children, and to society ! >J« THOMAS L. GRACE, 

A rchbishop of Siunia:" 1 



"... It possesses the great advantage of being very practical, as it 
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nary discharge of parents' domestic and family duties. . . . 

►J* JOHN McEVILLY, 

Archbishop of Tuam" 



44 . . . The study of 4 The Christian Mother ' would be a great help 
to many a mother in the work of their own sanctification, as well as in 
the education of their children. »J« E. O'CONNELL, 

Bishop of Grass Valley." 

44 . . The little book should be introduced into every Catholic 
family, for the instruction of parents as well as children, wherefore 
we earnestly recommend it. JOHN VERTIN, 

Bishop of Marquette" 

14 I am well pleased with it, and would like to see it in the hands 
of every Christian mother. . . . 

•fi ^EGIDIUS JUNGER, Bishop of Nesqually." 



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BOOKS FOR THE PEOPLE ! 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE ; 

Or, The Value and Excellence of the Holy Mass. With a 
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THE MOST HOLY ROSARY 

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VISITS TO THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT 

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INSTRUCTIONS ON THE COfiriANDMENTS 
OF GOD 

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Italian of St. Alphonsus de Liguori. Edited by Rev. 
Eugene Grimm, C.SS.R. 

A new edition, carefully edited, printed on good paper from clear, 
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STORIES FOR FIRST COMMUNICANTS, 

For the Time before and after First Communion. Drawn 
from the best authorities by Rev. J. A. Keller, D.D. 
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CATHOLIC BELIEF: 

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Heresies and Schisms, Errors of Protestantism. 

What Catholics do NOT Believe. 

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Marriage and Divorce. 

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Private Interpretation of Scripture. 
Interesting Statistics on the Religions of the World. 

1 6mo, 434 pp. 

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